"Nottingham, HST's , Asian's and a 'bomb scare'"

[FusionRail]

Today me and my friend went up to nottingham, (but changed at leicester so we could get on a very nice PV HST)

On return to the staion, as we borded the same HST to go back to leicester, we were standing in the vestibule of the coach neasrest the front, and we saw two asian people, standing on the platform, hugging and crying to what looked like their parents, with a medium sized bag packed full with a wire hanging out. as they got onto the train, they walked past us and we could hear a bleeping noise from them, and when they found their seats, thy kept getting back off the train and talking to the 'parents', and the dad said "we will miss you mohammed, good luck and hope it goes quickly.. you are doing it for god", then they got back onto the train and sat down. The parents, and the two people, kept giving us dodgy looks, and whn we heard the beeping again, we had had enough, and jumped off the train. Just in case.

Then we boarded the next meridian 45 minutes later

Also another thing was the 4 BTP policemen on the platform, looking at the asian group, and talking into their radios, and one of them got on aswell.

I know maybe it was ok, but we didnt feel safe!:???: Things shouldnt be like this on britians railways should it? having to get off your train you payed to get on, because you feel unsafe being on it, because of what might happen.

and we missed a trip back on the last HST of the weekend!

im trying to make no racist comments. sorry about any wrong spelling!

 

[devon_metro]

Certainly would seem a bit freaky if it was on my train. I'd feel uneasy travelling or try and move coach if possible.

 

[Daniel]

To be honest, I don't blame you for jumping off - (I probably would have) - and if I were in your position and hadn't seen the BTP I'd have reported it to station staff.

 

[richa2002]

Blimey, quite scary, what's to say they tried to detonate the bomb and it didn't work? Or it was all a test run? Who knows...

 

[FusionRail]

Blimey, quite scary, what's to say they tried to detonate the bomb and it didn't work? Or it was all a test run? Who knows...

thanks for that, i was standing about 50cm away from the guy at the time! lol

 

[richa2002]

Lol, sorry! Main thing is you're okay though.

 

[FusionRail]

Lol, sorry! Main thing is you're okay though.

yeh thats alright! lol good nothing happened... would have been disaterous [cant spell it!] if it had have gone up, and all the fuel too.. and it was a HST aswell!

 

[Meld]

Now If you'd reported it to the BTP on the platform would they have arrested the couple under PoTa and delayed/cancelled the train. I for one hearing the beeping would have said something for sure.

I take it the couple left on the train and nothing happened by BTP - if so, so much for the improved security arrangements on the railways. They can harass an enthusiast as much as they like and when a genuine issue - as this is - arises, they do nowt.

 

[Mojo]

yeh thats alright! lol good nothing happened... would have been disaterous [cant spell it!] if it had have gone up, and all the fuel too.. and it was a HST aswell!

Diesel is moderately uninflammable and highly unlikely to cause any problems when fire is present.

 

[class 313]

If you did call the BTP over for assistance, maybe it would of scared them and that in itself could be very dangerous! Glad you're ok though.

 

[Spaceflower]

I thought he was referring to the coffee.hock:

 

[Wayfarer Sam]

What an awful situation to be in. I think i would have stayed on the train but as far away from them as possible. Having said that i was not there and if i had been i may have got off much like you did. It is hard for anyone to say what they would do in that situation because when it happens you have a completely different perspective on it than what you would do when you luck back.

I dont quite know where i am going with this post.

Glad it was all ok though.

 

[Zamracene749]

I think I would have been looking around for the TV cameras/production crew.

Seriously, crying and wailing with wires hanging out of a beeping backpack-surely even a suicide bomber wouldn't be that daft??

Good job they didn't try it at Stockwell tube station mind......

 

[Meld]

Taking the worst case scenario from this - assuming the backpack was a bomb - the BTP should have been informed regardless - the passengers could have left the backpack on the train and left the train at Leicester - with a timed detonator or similar - the damage caused would have been horrendous in any circumstance of it exploding.
The issue is not only your own personal safety here but the safety of all the passengers on the train. You have a moral responsibility to report it.

How would you have felt if later in the evening you heard that a MML service had been victim to a terrorist attack.

The Rail authorities haven't the resources to monitor everything that goes off on the network and it is up to us to help by reporting anything that is/looks suspicious

IF ANYONE SEES ANYTHING THAT LOOKS SUSPICIOUS - REPORT IT - ITS ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY

 

[RJ]

thanks for that, i was standing about 50cm away from the guy at the time! lol

So you saw these people looking very suspect, yet hung around long enough to earwig their conversation. Common sense would dictate that you move as far away as you can from them as soon as possible.

 

[FusionRail]

So you saw these people looking very suspect, yet hung around long enough to earwig their conversation. Common sense would dictate that you move as far away as you can from them as soon as possible.

no... i herd the beebing when i was about 50cm away.. when they were talking, i didnt hear it, it was my mate [cannot name him], and he called me over and said'i think we should get off, did you hear what they just said.."

etc

its hard to explain now, and yes ok we should have reported it, but in the heat of the moment we forgot and wenrt thinking straight.

 

[class 313]

its hard to explain now, and yes ok we should have reported it, but in the heat of the moment we forgot and wenrt thinking straight.

Well there's two sides to that,

Yes you should of reported it cos something could of been done, such as a bag check or escort off the train.

No you should not of reported it cos it might of scared the person with the bag, and if the person with the bag was trying to bomb the the train (Which we know the person didn't...) then it might of caused the person to detonate there and then.

But thank god the latter didn't happen.

 

[davethomas]

Today me and my friend went up to nottingham, (but changed at leicester so we could get on a very nice PV HST)

On return to the staion, as we borded the same HST to go back to leicester, we were standing in the vestibule of the coach neasrest the front, and we saw two asian people, standing on the platform, hugging and crying to what looked like their parents, with a medium sized bag packed full with a wire hanging out. as they got onto the train, they walked past us and we could hear a bleeping noise from them, and when they found their seats, thy kept getting back off the train and talking to the 'parents', and the dad said "we will miss you mohammed, good luck and hope it goes quickly.. you are doing it for god", then they got back onto the train and sat down. The parents, and the two people, kept giving us dodgy looks, and whn we heard the beeping again, we had had enough, and jumped off the train. Just in case.

Then we boarded the next meridian 45 minutes later

Also another thing was the 4 BTP policemen on the platform, looking at the asian group, and talking into their radios, and one of them got on aswell.

I know maybe it was ok, but we didnt feel safe!:???: Things shouldnt be like this on britians railways should it? having to get off your train you payed to get on, because you feel unsafe being on it, because of what might happen.

and we missed a trip back on the last HST of the weekend!

im trying to make no racist comments. sorry about any wrong spelling!

Well done for not reporting it, too many people's journies are delayed by people who get scared every time they see an Asian man with a backpack.

Would you have reacted in the same way if you saw some white people doing the exact same thing? Seriously...

"Things shouldnt be like this on britians railways should it? having to get off your train you payed to get on, because you feel unsafe being on it, because of what might happen."

You didn't *have* to get off, you *chose* to get off, because you witnessed someone saying goodbye to their parents. If everyone got off the train every time they saw me with my mp3 player under my shirt...

 

[thomasgholmes]

I would for sure got off!

 

[Juniper Driver]

How many times have I found a bag left on a train?

Many times.

I even had some kid at Waterloo have a go at me because I found a rucksack at Waterloo on a train on platform 17 and looked through it to check it was okay.He said I should have called security.Obviously he wasn't even working when the IRA were doing their stuff in the early 90's.

 

[TheSlash]

HOT
Is it Hidden?
Is it under a seat or in an unusual location? Would you say it has been 'hidden'?
Is it Obvious?
Is it obviously somebodies shopping, or a school kid's rucksack?
Is it a Threat
Is it in a threatening location? Does it look like a threat? Could it become a threat?
As said previously, if in doubt, always go with safety and call in the experts. I actually know a railway employe who caused a bomb scare at Waterloo 8)

 

[Coxster]

The other day on the train someone had left a cake tin in a bag on a 450 but none of us in the carriage really noticed. The guard came through from the rear and asked if it was ours. He looked inside the bag and saw the tin and said "I doubt that's a bomb". You should have seen the face on the lady opposite who screamed "Did you say BOMB!!!!". She then went and sat in another carriage

 

[P156KWJ]

I once reported a very odd wheelie suitcase at nottingham, to station staff, and it turned out some silly japanese students don't know what 'keep your bags with you at all times' means!:?

 

[Aureol]

This is a customer announcement. Please do not leave cases or parcels anywhere on the station. Any unattended articles are likely to be removed without warning.
Yeah, what's so hard to understand about that simple message by Phil Sayer?

 

[kettlefan]

god thats terrible! I wonder what the hell kept beeping :?

I had a bit of a paranoid incident last year. Got on a train at Chertsey and sat down, looked to my left and there was this Asian bloke sitting across the aisle who had the most sinister and guilty expression I have ever come across. Suffice to say, when he kept looking in his bag every 3 or 4 minutes I just thought stuff it I'll be safer in the next coach if he does go up. So come the next station (I didn't want to look like I was being racist in case he was ok and I caused offence!), which was Virginia Water I got up and moved two coaches ahead.

Sat down looked right and there was a Rastafarian...who kept looking in his bag every two minutes.

Suffice to say for the rest of that journey I remained vigilant :?

 

[djw1981]

But you were being racist..... so why hide it?

 

[Gizmogle]

god thats terrible! I wonder what the hell kept beeping :?

Tamagotchi?

But you were being racist..... so why hide it?

Yes, but you can't blame him.
Asians have bombed things before. It scares people. I certainly don't want to be bombed, and wouldn't want to risk being polite and not upsetting someone if it turned out they did have a bomb.
Not all Asians bomb things obviously, but it's happened before, and no doubt it'll probably happen again.

 

[Craig]

there was this Asian bloke sitting across the aisle who had the most sinister and guilty expression I have ever come across. Suffice to say, when he kept looking in his bag every 3 or 4 minutes

Maybe he wasn't a suicide bomber and you were making him nervous by staring at him.

Are you the same when you see a person from Northern Ireland?

 

[djw1981]

But they were also Muslims who did the bombing. Does that mean if on a train wit Cat Stevens who looks into his rucsac a lot, one should be worried.

The stereotyping by race is what is racist.

 

[Gizmogle]

Of course it's racist. But then, it's a fact that Asian people have bombed before.
Obviously, only the smallest tiny percentage of Asians are actually terrorists.
But still, I'd rather look like the biggest racist in the world than sit still and be scared incase there's a bomb on this guy...