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UPDATE 11 (22:15): In case you don’t know by now, there were actually two bombs. A second was discovered in another Mercedes. Reuters tells us:

…Similar materials were later found in a blue Mercedes that had been parked illegally nearby and towed away. The two cars were “clearly linked” said Peter Clarke, London’s anti-terrorism police chief.

“The discovery of what appears to be a second bomb is obviously troubling and reinforces the need for the public to be alert,” he said.

Authorities said they did not know who left the bombs but they had begun a counter-terrorism investigation…

As to why neither exploded? As of tonight, anyone’s guess is probably reasonable.

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UPDATE 10 (19:10): The BBC has a useful “Q & A” up.

No, really. It’s useful.

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UPDATE 9 (17:25 — and hello Tigerhawk readers; to clarify, we lived in London until January, but we now live in Dorset, about 90 miles to the southwest): Sky reports:

Sky News sources say one of the first police officers on the scene of the London West End car bomb may have saved dozens of lives by diffusing the explosives before the bomb squad arrived.

It is believed the quick-thinking cop recognised that the car was wired to blow up, jumped in and disconnected the trigger device, thought to be a mobile phone…

A real “James Bond”! (Our heroes disarm bombs. “Theirs” — regardless of whoever precisely they are, but which will be determined, one suspects, in due course — try to detonate them among scores of women.)

…Park Lane has also been closed to traffic due to a suspect vehicle in an underground car park that police believe is connected to the attempted bombing in Haymarket.

Sky News crime correspondent said: “It might be the escape vehicle of the Mercedes driver, or it might be the vehicle of an accomplice, but it is turning into something very significant.”

Fleet Street has also been closed after the discovery of another suspect vehicle…

The multiple nature of all this, may speak volumes as to whom those “heroes” might well be.  The tabloid Daily Mail doesn’t mince words: 

Hunt for Al Qaeda terror gang behind ‘massive’ London bomb attack

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UPDATE 8 (14:30): The Times:

Inside Tiger Tiger last night, hundreds of young women were dancing to club classics and party anthems at ladies’ night, unaware of the drama about to unfold.

The super-bar stretches over three floors with city workers and visitors to London buying expensive cocktails and bottled beers in bars, a club and a restaurant.

At around 2am, when police arrived outside the club to find a massive unexploded car bomb, there was an hour left of ‘Sugar ‘n’ Spice’, the regular night billed as “run for women, by women”…

So, were certain bastards aiming to kill women, en masse?

Usefully, The Telegraph summarizes . . .

What do we know about the car bomb discovered in London’s West End?

Click over for its bullet-point breakdown.

The Home Office web site has a few words from the new Home Secretary:

…Home Secretary Jacqui Smith asked for the press and the public to give investigators time to do the work at hand.

‘What I think is very important is that the public remain vigilant at all times,’ the Home Secretary said. ‘Obviously the police are investigating, and I think we should allow them to get on with that without undue speculation.’

What some of us out here might also think is that that was one statement that upon reading one could only feel to be an utter waste of a few moments of our lives well worth waiting for.

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UPDATE 7 (12:35): BBC ”News 24’s” bottom screen scroll just told us that “60 litres of petrol” were found in the car.

60 litres?  That should have cost them just under £60 (about $120 US) . . . if they’d paid retail.  If they didn’t, well, when caught they will be in serious trouble with the Brown government.  (And that’s not even taking into account the talking to they must receive about the dangers of unoffset CO2 emitted by any explosion.)

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UPDATE 6: (12:20) BBC 1 has dropped “News 24’s” live (failed) bombing coverage.  BBC1 now has “Cash in the Attic” on.  Since noon, BBC2 has offered a replay of Wimbledon coverage . . . because it’s currently raining, so there’s no live play. (I don’t think any bombing coverage was ever on BBC2.)

I guess that BBC1’s having gone to “Cash” means the Beeb has declared the “crisis” now “unofficially” over. Nothing more to see here, folks. Move along now.

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UPDATE 5:  (12:15 PM) Frank Gardner again notes it as apparently an Iraq-style car bomb. What the police have not answered is if someone was with the car, and ran off. Why engage in a suicide attack . . . when you don’t have to? They could have just left the car to explode. Or, perhaps, as the wife just observed to me, perhaps a suicide bomber got cold feet at the last moment? We shall see.

The potential “Ministry of Sound” bombing also comes to mind. And Gardner also just mentioned it.

We are now awaiting a statement from the new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.

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UPDATE 4: At a news conference, DAC Peter Clarke just told us that “nails” were found in the vehicle. And it was indeed outside “Tiger Tiger”.

Our first reactions are perhaps natural. We do know that nightclubs have been bombed elsewhere in the world (Bali in particular comes to mind), but there have in the past been London nail bomb attacks . . . for reasons other than “anger” over ___________ [oh, fill in the blank].

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UPDATE 3: The BBC’s Frank Gardner was just on telling us that there is an “international element” to this — that it isn’t “animal rights” people or “Irish”.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m shocked . . . shocked!

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UPDATE 2: Interestingly, notice a difference in general reporting styles.

A diffused car bomb in London? This is not good. After all, this story might crowd out today’s Wimbledon coverage.

Sky tells viewers to head for the hills!

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UPDATE: Watching BBC “News 24″ on TV, the wife just told me that it looks to her like the car is being removed from just outside “Tiger Tiger” . . . a place we’d been when we lived in London. (It is a “slick”, end of workday hangout, which is open very late.  And no, we weren’t regulars.)

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[INITIAL POST]  The BBC reports:

Police have disabled a car bomb containing gas cylinders in the heart of central London.

Officers carried out a controlled explosion after reports of a suspicious vehicle parked in Haymarket shortly before 0200 BST (0100 GMT)…

…John O’Connor, former commander of Scotland Yard’s Flying Squad, told BBC News the incident bore all the “hallmarks” of a failed suicide bomb attempt. And it was “lucky” the police had received the tip-off…

Presumably, the search for “Christian terrorists” is now well underway?