1st LD: British student found guilty of planting metro bomb in London

A British student has been found guilty of building a bomb and leaving it on a London metro train last year, local media reported on Wednesday.

Damon Smith, 20, from Rotherhithe in southeast London, had admitted perpetrating a bomb hoax but tried to defend himself by saying that he only intended to make a smoke bomb to scare people.

But the device contained ball-bearing shrapnel for "maximum damage", so the jury convicted him of making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life.

Smith, then aged 19, left the rucksack containing the bomb on the train last October. And he said he had been inspired by someone on an online video. Endit