By New York Post (World News) | Created at 2025-03-21 18:25:13 | Updated at 2025-03-22 00:37:47
6 hours ago
British counter-terrorism police are reportedly probing whether sabotage is to blame for the huge fire near London’s Heathrow Airport — as some experts warned Friday the inferno had all the “hallmarks” of a Russian plot.
The raging fire, which broke out at an electrical substation about 2 miles from the airport late Thursday, knocked out power to Europe’s busiest hub — forcing the cancelation of more than 1,300 global flights and disrupting travel for some 291,000 passengers.
As investigators scrambled to determine a cause for the blaze — which is expected to cause disruptions for several more days — fears mounted that Russian President Vladimir Putin could potentially be to blame for the chaos.
Investigators scrambled to determine a cause for the blaze near Heathrow Airport — as fears mounted Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin could potentially be to blame for the chaos. APThe Metropolitan Police said that while there was currently no indication of foul play, detectives were retaining an “open mind” and that its terrorism command would lead the probe.
Terrorism detectives were deployed because of their expertise and the need to determine whether sabotage potentially played a role, The Times reported.
Meanwhile, experts were refusing to rule out foreign bad actors.
University of Buckingham Professor Anthony Glees told LBC that Britain’s spy agency, MI5, was likely already “all over this” to weigh whether the fire was a Kremlin-sponsored attack.
“We are obliged to think about Russian military intelligence being involved in something as serious as this,” he said.
“It’s a very serious hit on our critical national infrastructure [and] that we should suspect the Russians and their surrogates being responsible is in itself an indication of the success of Russian subversive activities in the United Kingdom.
“This could be a coincidence, but bearing in mind there are more than 585,000 electrical substations in the UK, why this particular one should explode does seem to me to be more than a coincidence.”
The Metropolitan Police said that while there was currently no indication of foul play, detectives were retaining an “open mind” and that its terrorism command would lead the probe. TOLGA AKMEN/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockOther security experts and ex-military officials also signaled possible interference from Moscow — pointing to a fire at a Ukrainian-owned warehouse in London last year that a British man copped to organizing on Russia’s behalf.
“This has all the hallmarks of Russian sabotage,” former Colonel Hamish de Bretton Gordon told The Sun.
“There is still no hard evidence, but circumstantially, this is straight out of Moscow’s sabotage playbook,” he continued. “We don’t hear of substations catching fire very often. And for the back-up system to fail as well. The timing is very suspicious.”
Ex-Major General Jonathan Shaw, who is a former director of Special Forces, echoed the remarks, saying: “Obviously we should be worried that this could be Russia.”
“It is definitely a possibility. And it shows how vulnerable we are. We need a complete change of mindset,” he told the outlet.
The warnings come after energy minister Ed Miliband insisted earlier Friday there was no suggestion that there was foul play involved.
Still, the London Fire Brigade’s deputy commissioner Jonathan Smith said he was unable to comment when asked if cops were investigating the cause of the fire as a possible terrorist incident.
“All I can say, is the Metropolitan Police are investigating the cause of this fire, ably assisted by our fire investigation officers,” he said.
