by Diary | July 8th, 2005
Seven explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday, sending bloodied victims fleeing in the worst attack on London since World War II. At least 37 people were killed, U.S. officials said, and more than 700 were wounded.
Police put the death toll from the morning rush hour attack at 37. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy later quoted Britain’s government as saying 50 people had been killed.
Three explosions caused carnage on underground trains as Londoners made their way to work. The top was also ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square in the heart of the city.
The news-stands reflected both in London today — a surreal sight as posters celebrating London’s successful Olympic bid were fast replaced by blunt headlines like “terrorist attack — commuters dead.” For two consecutive days, the eyes of the world have been focused on London — for utterly different reasons.
The previous lunchtime, thousands of Londoners had celebrated the Olympic committee’s decision to award the 30th Olympiad to the English capital. 24 hours on, those same citizens were trudging home in the rain, stunned and terrified.
The telephone networks were in a state of near melt-down. The entire underground train system was closed. Buses were off the roads. There were few cars, and normally busy thoroughfares like Regent Street and Piccadilly resembled postcards from a ghost town.
Oblivious to the downpour, large crowds gathered at shop windows to gaze in stunned amazement at the television news. The sound-track was provided by the sirens of the emergency services. Police cars, paramedics and fire trucks tore through the city streets in an apparent state of disarray. I lost count of how many.
This was three hours after the bombings, and it was hard not to think London was still under attack. The military helicopters which buzzed over Buckingham Palace and patrolled the river by the House of Commons did nothing to ease concern.
“The scene afterwards was horrible: pieces of body on the ground,” said Ayobami Bello, a 42-year-old security guard who was near the bus.
Police said seven people were killed on an underground train near Liverpool Street, 21 were confirmed dead in another near King’s Cross and seven died at Edgware Road. At least two passengers on the bus were killed.
Passengers stumbled through smoke-filled carriages deep underground to escape the trains after the blasts.
“It was horrific. There was smoke everywhere. I couldn’t breathe,” said Joe Witalls at Edgware Road station.
A previously unknown group, “Secret Group of al Qaeda’s Jihad in Europe,” claimed responsibility but police said it was too early to say whether suicide bombers were involved.
Brian Paddick, assistant deputy commissioner of London police, told reporters no warning had been received.
The scenes of shocked, bloodied and wounded commuters were in stark contrast to the jubilant crowds who flocked the streets on Wednesday after London was awarded the 2012
London had not seen such an attack since a car bomb in 2001 blamed on a Irish republican splinter group, but it had been on high alert since Sept. 11, 2001. Police had said it was just a matter of time before the British capital was hit.
President Bush, speaking at the G8 summit, told reporters: “We will not yield to these terrorists, we will find them, we will bring them to justice.”
Britain is the closest ally of the United States in Iraq, where al Qaeda is waging a bloody insurgency. Spain withdrew its troops from Iraq after the Madrid bombings which killed 191 when 10 simultaneous bombs tore through four commuter trains.
“It has the hallmarks of an al Qaeda-related attack. The assessment is currently being made,” Straw said in a round of television interviews from the G8 summit in Scotland.
The Islamic Human Rights Commission warned London Muslims to stay at home. The Muslim Council of Britain, which represents 1.6 million Muslims, called for prayers for the victims at the country’s 800 mosques and urged full cooperation with police.
“Not good,” was the response of one police officer when asked how he felt to be working in the capital today. Another was more upbeat. He’d been due to take the tube from Edgware Road to work today, but had decided to walk instead. In the circumstances, he didn’t mind being told that he and his colleagues would have to work through the night on a 24-hour shift.
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