In UK, police find Entwistle at tube station

LONDON -- The tube station at Royal Oak is one of the sleepiest in the London subway system, drawing few visitors from outside the residential neighborhood, which is cut off from more desirable and touristy areas by one of the few highways leading out of the city.

But yesterday, among the row houses and shops, London's Metropolitan Police swooped into the station, boarded an 11:45 a.m. train bound for central London, and arrested Neil Entwistle on charges he murdered his wife and child. The arrest startled the quiet neighborhood, said those who witnessed the commotion. Police tucked Entwistle quickly into a white police van and whisked him away. Despite frenzied coverage of the case by British tabloid newspapers, some of those who witnessed what happened did not immediately recognize Entwistle.

''It wasn't until the TV people came that we knew something was really going on," said Mahbub Zaman, who works at Porchester News, a convenience store.

Kristian Watling, an insurance broker whose office looks out onto the street in front of the station, said he noticed an unmarked car with blue lights parked in front of his window beginning at 11 a.m.

''I didn't think much of it until I heard shouting and commotion," Watling said. He looked out the window and saw four police officers hurrying a man into the van. Watling called the other businesses on the street, but he said no one knew what was occurring.

Despite Royal Oak's proximity to Paddington rail station, a central terminal from which passengers can board trains for locations throughout the country, authorities said yesterday they do not believe Entwistle was fleeing.

According to Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley, Entwistle, seeking to avoid the constant media glare, had stayed Wednesday night at a friend's house in London and was traveling to visit someone else in another section of the city yesterday morning.

Entwistle had previously been staying with his parents at their residence in Worksop, England, a former coal mining town about 150 miles north of London

Royal Oak is a few blocks from London's scenic Little Venice and not far from affluent Notting Hill.

Entwistle is being held in London and has indicated he will contest extradition to the United States.

Worksop police said yesterday they had not been asked to keep an eye on him, but Coakley has indicated that Entwistle's movements were being monitored in England.

A few hours after the arrest, Entwistle appeared in a central London court in an initial extradition hearing with his lawyer Ben Brandon.

Dressed in sweatpants and slip-on shoes, Entwistle had little to say during the hearing, which lasted less than five minutes.

According to reports, after confirming his name and address, he said that he understood the nature of the charges that were being leveled against him and did not consent to being extradited ''at this time."