What we know about the apparent terror incident on the London Underground

Impact

Friday morning in London, as commuters filled the city’s subway system, an explosive detonated on a train at the Parsons Green station in Southwest London, sending at least 22 people to the hospital, the BBC reported.

British officials are treating the incident as terrorism, and Scotland Yard confirmed to the BBC that the explosion was caused by an “improvised explosive device.”

The explosion happened on an eastbound District Line train, according to the BBC. An image of the explosive device taken by a commuter appeared to show a white bucket in a trash bag, with wire sticking out.

Uncredited/AP

The blast went off at 8:20 a.m. local time and sent commuters scrambling in a panic. “It happened just as we were pulling up to the Tube station so everyone just sort of piled out of the Tube, and there was a distinct smell of burning,” one witness, identified only as Luke, told the BBC.

Another witness, Emma Stevie, 27, told the BBC that she was on the train when the explosion happened and that there was a “stampede” as people rushed to get away from the source of the blast.

“I wedged myself in next to a railing, I put myself in the fetal position,” she said. “There was a pregnant woman underneath me, and I was trying really hard not to crush her. ... The injuries from the stampede seemed the worst. I’m outside now; there are women crying and people sitting on the floor.”

Jack Taylor/Getty Images

According to the BBC, the 22 people hospitalized because of the apparent attack were mostly being treated for burns.

Officials told the BBC that there is an extensive investigation into Friday morning’s apparent terror attack and that hundreds of detectives are involved.