DETECTIVES are investigating claims that a gang of teenage girls may have blown up a house in London because of an argument about a boy.
The explosion destroyed three Victorian houses, killing one resident and leaving the intended target – 17-year-old Charlotte Anderson – in intensive care in hospital with severe burns.
Anderson called police 10 hours before the blast, on Wednesd
ay, to report that a group of girls aged 16 and 17 were causing trouble outside her house in Harrow. Another resident has claimed they were pouring a "purple and smelly" liquid through the letterbox.
Experts have told police the substance, which has not yet been identified, may have vaporised and exploded.
Emad Qureshi, 26, from Pakistan, who lived with his parents next door to Anderson, was killed in the blast.
Scotland Yard has launched a murder inquiry and is hunting the girl gang, who are believed to have had an argument with Anderson. She moved to London from Newcastle six months ago and recently began dating a local boy.
A police source said: "There are several possibilities, one of which is that this was a home-made explosive which was cooked up using a recipe on the internet. The methods for making these liquid bombs are all over the internet.
"We have seen with recent terrorism trials that there are plenty of things on the web, but it would obviously be an extraordinary and disturbing development if a girl gang has decided to settle a dispute in such dramatic and tragic way."
One of the possible substances being investigated is methyl ethyl ketone, which can come in a purple liquid form with an ether-like odour and is used on piping by plumbers. It is a highly flammable irritant, which can be explosive if concentrated into a vapour.
Last week, Det Ch Insp Colin Sutton said a 17-year-old woman who lived at 21 Stanley Road was the probable target of any attack.
She called police at 11am about the girls, but then told officers they had gone away. She did not mention the liquid being poured through the letterbox, but another resident reported it after the blast.
The explosion happened at 9.30pm. Anderson was pulled from rubble by neighbours and taken to hospital with severe burns. She is now in a stable condition.
At first, investigators believed the explosion had been caused by a gas leak but engineers could find no faults with the mains supply and it is understood that the house at No 21 had no gas supply.
The explosion damaged properties in a 60-yard radius of the house. It completely demolished another house and two flats. Another property was partially demolished.
Neighbours dug through the smoking rubble with their bare hands to find the trapped residents. The body of Qureshi, who is understood to have just finished a post-graduate degree in computing, was removed by firefighters.
Sutton said: "We still haven't ruled out a gas explosion but experts say it is unlikely. What we can say is that we are happy there is no link to any terrorist organisation or acts here."
The full article contains 533 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
