BNP list linked to fire-bomb attack

Car explodes near home of man named as member of far-right party

Police are investigating a suspected fire bomb near the home of a man whose details were on a list of BNP members published on the internet.

The 26-year-old man left the BNP in 2007 but his personal details were among 12,000 other names on a contact list kept by the far-right party.

He is self employed and has a young son. He was not at home when the explosion occurred.

Eyewitnesses described hearing an explosion in the residential street in West Yorkshire, close to the front of the man's house. A parked car, believed to be a Peugeot belonging to his neighbour, was rapidly consumed by flames.

One possibility being investigated by police is that the explosion was connected to the highly-publicised leak earlier this week of the BNP's contact list.

Speaking at the scene, David Exley, Kirklees organiser for the BNP, said: "I spoke to the police this morning and they confirmed that a car had been firebombed last night and one of the lines of inquiry is the person who lives next door to [the person] whose car it was is on the list on the internet.

"I can confirm that the gentleman, whose house the car was outside, is not a member of the BNP and is not a current supporter of the BNP. That list covers everybody who has ever contacted our head office for whatever reason.

"It could be this man got an information pack, looked at it, decided it's not for him and thrown it away. But unfortunately somebody has irresponsibly put this list on the internet."

One woman, who asked not to be named, said: "I was just nodding off and just heard this boom. I looked out of the window and the car was on fire. There was nothing left of the car. The roof was blown off, the windscreen was blown off, there were bits of car in my garden and bits of car in next door's garden."

A spokesman for West Yorkshire police said: "We don't know the cause of the fire yet. Investigations are ongoing."

The BNP is still trying to establish who posted the list of 12,000 names on a website earlier in the week. They suspect a disgruntled former member of staff. The list was removed from the original site where had been was posted but reappeared elsewhere on the internet.

After the list was published on Wikileaks, which specialises in hosting controversial documents, the site attracted between two and six million hits in 24 hours, and was struggling to stay online.

One Merseyside Police officer has been suspended pending an investigation by his force to establish the facts after his name appeared on the list, because police officers are banned from joining the BNP. Rod Lucas, a TalkSport DJ, was told by the station that there were "no plans" to continue using his services after his list appeared on the same list. He said that he had joined the BNP for journalistic reasons.