July 21 jurors shown mock-up blasts

LONDON, Mar 13 (Reuters) Video footage released yesterday showed the potential explosive power of devices used in the alleged 21 July attacks on London when bombers tried to attack the London transport network.

Police released the footage after it was shown in Woolwich Crown Court along with evidence from explosives expert Clifford Todd, whose team carried out the mock blasts.

Todd, a principal forensic investigator from the Forensic Explosives Laboratory in Kent, said they blew up replicas of the devices alleged to have been used by the defendants.

The explosions on the video took place in a quarry, with scientists watching from a fortified bunker.

A cloud of white smoke could be seen rising several metres into the air. A chair that was fixed to the bucket-type device shattered into many pieces which landed far away from the site of the explosion.

Nails and washers were taped round the bucket which the prosecution say were intended to be used as shrapnel.

Six defendants deny conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions in what prosecutors say was a plot to repeat the worst peacetime bombings in London's history, the July 7, 2005 attacks on three trains and a bus that killed 52 commuters.

The trial continues.

REUTERS SB BST0940