Suspected Russian device that sparked fire at UK warehouse ‘was test run for attack on US’

Polish spy chief Pawel Szota says he believes the attacks were carried out under the direction of Russian spies

Police say they are investigating an incident involving a package that caught alight at the DHL Express Birmingham in Minworth (Google Maps )

A suspected Russian arson attack on a DHL warehouse in Birmingham was a test run for future attacks on the US, Polish officials have said, after arresting some of the alleged criminals involved.

British counterterrorism officers, working alongside European partners, are investigating the explosion of a device on 22 July at a warehouse in Minworth. Nobody was injured in the fire.

But after another attack that same month involving an incendiary device in a DHL warehouse in Leipzig, eastern Germany, investigators said the parcel only narrowly missed igniting while on board an aircraft, which could have caused fatalities.

In the months after the fires, intelligence agency chiefs, including the heads of MI6 and MI5, warned that their Russian counterparts were carrying out a range of attacks in Europe, including arson and sabotage.

Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office announced it has arrested four people in connection with the fires and charged them with participating in sabotage or terrorist operations on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency.

They added they did not believe the fires had been the ultimate end goal of alleged arsonists.

“The group’s goal was also to test the transfer channel for such parcels, which were ultimately to be sent to the United States of America and Canada,” the prosecutor’s office said.

They declined to name who was orchestrating the group’s efforts. On Monday, Counter Terrorism Policing said the arrests were not carried out as part of its investigation.

But the head of Poland’s foreign intelligence agency, Pawel Szota, blamed Russian spies. He added that if the devices had exploded on an airborne plane, it would have represented a major escalation in Moscow’s campaign against the West.

“I’m not sure the political leaders of Russia are aware of the consequences if one of these packages exploded, causing a mass casualty event,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

The US publication also reported that Lithuanian police arrested a man believed to have sent four incendiary devices, including two from a DHL shop in the capital Vilnius.

Investigators said they believed he was being used as a proxy by Russian spy forces, adding that he had been picked up using a false name.

The Kremlin denied involvement in the attacks.