trains across the city in a calculated act of terrorism. donna friesen covers the story as a correspondent for nbc news. these are not suicide bombers. they are backpacks placed inside the train by terrorists who placed them and then got off the train and left them. there were virtually 25 pounds of explosives in each backpack filled with nails and screws and various shrapnel so there would be maximum damage when they exploded. they were all detonated by cell phones, so they all had cell phones in them and the perpetrators then dialed the numbers of the cell phones. marin is standing in the same train car holding one of the backpacks. shortly after one of the explosions knocked him unconscious, he began to come to his senses. translator: i started to feel the pain of not being able to move. i was paralyzed.
life, but the 10 bombs kill 191 people. i remember the coroner saying the most disturbing thing for him was the sound of cell phones ringing in the pockets of the dead, because their loved ones were so desperate trying to find them. two years after the bombings, the shock waves are still resonating. friesen returns to madrid and visits via marin who is struggling to move past his painful memories. it was his first time back to the main train station. he found it emotionally overwhelming. but he said, i m going to get on the train and i m going to do it. but you could see in his eyes how difficult it was and how he was going to be living with this for the rest of his life. in 2012, six years after that first difficult return to the station, via marin is riding the trains regularly.
to al qaeda. so, still a lot of connections to be worked out. tamron? donna, i understand officials say these people were trying to make peroxide bombs according to the allegations against them. that s right. it appears they, it s not exactly clear because the norwegians aren t giving out a lot of information but not clear how far along they got in those plots or in those experiments but they do say that nobody was in any imminent danger and because they didn t want to make the arrests right now, they probably had wanted to continue to keep them under surveillance to possibly follow some of these connections. tamron? all right, donna friesen live for us in london. thank you, again. russian news agencies report that a russian convicted of spying for the u.s. has now arrived in veania. it could be a signal that american and russian officials are preparing for the largest spy swap since the cold war. the trade would involve the u.s. giving up ten people last week accused of being
she s alive after this terrify, terrifying ordeal. we should learn more about this case at the news conference coming up shortly. you will bring that news conference to our audience live. we have breaking news to report. police in norway arrested three suspected al qaeda members in connection with an attempted bombing plot, norwegian and american officials say that plot was linked to last year s attempted suicide attack on the new york city subway system. just yesterday, federal prosecutors in this country charged a senior al qaeda leader with recruiting and directing that botched subway attack. nbc donna friesen is in london. donna, what else can you tell us about this development in the case? well, tamron, officials won t say what country or location these men may have been targeting. they dosay they were planning attacks with homemade, portable, but failed attacks on the new york city subway last year. norwegian security police say,