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#204693 - 07/07/05 03:00 AM
Multiple explosions in London
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Ervil
Member
Registered: 09/15/02
Posts: 177
Loc: Portugal
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It seems that the rats are back ...
Hi
Bad news from London ...
Multiple explosions in Buses and Subway stations
As soon I can post any link, I'll do it.
Ervil
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#204694 - 07/07/05 03:06 AM
Re: Multiple explosions in London
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Ervil
Member
Registered: 09/15/02
Posts: 177
Loc: Portugal
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Hi
It's very similar with the attack in Madrid
Ervil
quote:
Several injured in London blasts - From BBC website
Several people have been injured after explosions on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.
A police spokesman said there were "quite a large number of casualties" at Aldgate Tube Station.
And Scotland Yard confirmed one of several reports of explosions on buses in the city - in Tavistock Place - but said the cause was not yet known.
One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere".
Number 10 said it was "still unsure" whether the explosions were a terrorist attack and although casualties were reported, no further details were yet available.
Ministers are meeting to clarify the situation and the government will make a statement later, Leader of the House Geoff Hoon told the Commons.
PA also quoted union officials as saying sources had told them there had been at least one explosive device on the Underground.
British Transport Police said incidents took place at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Old Street and Russell Square stations.
Scotland Yard confirmed they were assisting with a "major incident" and said there were casualties.
Hospitals have said they are no longer accepting non-emergency cases, BBC Five Live reported.
The National Grid, which supplies power to the Underground, said there had been no problems with its system which could have contributed to the incidents.
'Screaming and crying'
Jacqui Head, from BBC News, who had just left King's Cross station on a Piccadilly Line train as an explosion happened, said: "Everything was normal. Suddenly there was a massive bang, the train jolted.
"There was immediately smoke everywhere and it was hot and everybody panicked. People started screaming and crying."
The train was kept in the tunnel for 20 minutes and no announcement was made to explain the delay to passengers, she added.
Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, near Kings Cross, told Five Live: "My only thought in the midst of all this confusion is that after the celebration of yesterday (for the Olympic 2012 London success) for people to be evil enough - if it is the intentional causing of death and injury - and think that they can justify this in any circumstances is completely unacceptable."
London Fire Brigade said four crews were at Liverpool Street and more were on their way.
Another passenger, who had left the Tube at Fenchurch Street Station, and walked to Aldgate East, told BBC Five Live that he saw injured people.
"As I walked through the bus station I could see people lying on the ground, black, as if they'd been covered in smoke. There were about three or four people on the floor being treated."
Eyewitness Paul Woloszyn from BBC News, who was at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line, said: "We were told there was a bomb at Liverpool Street station.
"I was on the Tube, and they stopped the train and told everyone to get off and evacuate the station."
He said staff had said the entire Tube network had been affected, and leaflets had been handed out with details of alternative bus routes.
Another eyewitness, Dorothy Molloy, had been on a Tube train at King's Cross and said "staff just chucked everyone out of the station".
She said staff there had not given any details, but she said two passengers she had spoken to had said they had received messages saying there had been bombs.
"People didn't really know what was going on, they were just huffing and puffing and saying how annoying it was," she said.
"People don't seem to be panicked, but there's so many police and ambulances coming into the areas. People are just concerned, and some are just annoyed at the delay."
0849 - Report of explosion on Metropolitan Line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate
Further explosions reported at Aldgate East, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Russell Square and Moorgate
Two Underground trains collide near King's Cross
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#204696 - 07/07/05 05:11 AM
Re: Multiple explosions in London
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Rick Donaldson
Time Traveler
Senior Investigator
Registered: 05/04/01
Posts: 6985
Loc: Colorado Springs
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Tony Blair: it’s terrorism
Financial Times ^ | July 7, 2005 | Unknown
Multiple explosions on the London Underground and on at least one bus have killed two and left dozens with “terrible injuries” in what prime minister Tony Blair said was a co-ordinated terrorist attack timed to coincide with the G8 summit.
Mr Blair, speaking in Gleneagles, described the attack as “barbaric” but said the summit would continue. The prime minister is flying to the capital for a full briefing but will return to Scotland this evening.
“It’s reasonably clear there has been a series of terrorist attacks in London. Obviously there are casualties - both people who have died and people who are seriously injured,” he said.
Police said there were at least two deaths and up to 185 casualties. The first of the explosions was reported at 8.49am at Aldgate East tube station. Six other incidents were reported at Edgware Road station, King’s Cross, Old Street, Moorgate, Russell Square and Leicester Square.
Main points
- Two killed and up to 185 injured
- At least four explosions confirmed
- Underground and bus services suspended across the capital
- Shares on FTSE 100 fall 2.8 per cent
- Blair to return to London but G8 summit will continue
The Metropolitan Police also confirmed there had been an explosion on at least one bus in Tavistock Square minutes after the blasts on the Underground.
“I saw lots of people running up a road and then saw the top of a bus destroyed,” an eyewitness told Sky News.
Early suggestions that the explosions may have been caused by an accidental surge in the electricity quickly gave way to evidence pointing to deliberate sabotage, amounting to the most serious terrorist attack in Europe since the attacks on the Madrid railway system in March last year.
Passengers spoke of hearing a “huge thud’’at Edgware Road station and travellers emerged from tunnels covered in blood and soot and with torn clothing.
An eyewitness at Aldgate East, where the two fatalities occured, saw smoke rising from the station and commuters with facial injuries and burns leaving as the area was evacuated. Police officers at the scene said there was evidence of an explosive device 200 metres down the track from the station.
The explosions shattered the euphoria generated by London’s successful bid for the Olympics and the renewed sense of national self-confidence.
Shares on the FTSE 100 fell 2.8 per cent - the biggest single day fall since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US - and the stock exchange eased rules on marketmakers after several trading floors were evacuated.
Across Europe, equity markets tumbled, while in the US, futures trade suggested the Dow Jones Industrial Average could fall by as much as 200 points at the Wall Street open.
The explosion, during the peak rush hour, caused massive disruption for commuters. Streets around the capital were packed with people attempting to find other ways of getting to work and mobile networks were jammed as people attempted to call their families and colleagues. The Underground network normally handles more than 3m passenger journeys a day.
Mr Blair said the leaders of the G8 had all expressed their shock and sympathy over the attacks and would continue with their agenda of addressing African debt and global warming.
“It is important, however, that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire impose extremism on the world,” he said.
Reporting by Jimmy Burns, Matthew Jones, Christopher Adams, Bob Sherwood and James Mawson
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#204697 - 07/07/05 05:12 AM
Re: Multiple explosions in London
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Rick Donaldson
Time Traveler
Senior Investigator
Registered: 05/04/01
Posts: 6985
Loc: Colorado Springs
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London blast: survivors' tales
Times Online ^ | July 7, 2005 | Peter Bale
A series of co-ordinated blasts across London that appear to be terror related have caused dozens of casualties, shut down the transport system and caused widespread panic. These are some of the stories from passengers who were travelling at the time of the blast at 9am.
Joanna Myerson, 29, covered in black soot and shaking with shock, was travelling from West Hampstead on a Circle Line train at 8.56 Farringdon to Aldgate.
"All of a sudden everything went white and we got thrown to the floor and there was smoke and fire outside. It sounded like an impact almost.
"You could see a sort of electrical fire outside the carriage, on the wall of the tunnel.
"Everybody had to walk through the train and then jump down onto the track. In the carriage I was in everyone was crying but they quickly took control. No one panicked. We wedged open the doors, you couldn’t open the doors. There were no hammers and you couldn’t get any air.
"The front three carriages were where people were injured.
"People were really good, some people just took control, no one panicked, not in the carriages where we were.
"I am really worried about one guy I saw who was walking with a hole in the back of his head."
Mustafa Kurtuldu, 24, from Hackney, said: "The train seemed to almost lift up off the rails. It sounded like an impact. It went white and there were flames outside the train, but they died down quickly."
"I was in the next carriage from where the actual thing happened.
"The train almost like lifted up. After about like 10 minutes some guys came, I think they must have been London underground guys, and they were walking along the track.
"The explosion happened at about five to nine and by the time we got out it was about half past nine."
The two witnesses said that they had broken out of the train, forced the doors open and walked along the darkened track with other passengers past by what they believe were three badly damaged front carriages, one of which had been bent out of shape and blown out.
They said that there were many injured in front carriages which appeared to take the bulk of the impact of the explosion. They had no idea whether it was a bomb or electrical explosion.
"I walked past one person lying on the tracks. I don't know if they were all right," said Mr Kurtuldu.
Aldgate passenger Sarah Reid said: "I was on the train and there was a sudden jolt forward. There was a really hard banging from the carriage next door to us after the explosion - that's where it happened."
Describing events moments before the explosion, she said: "There was a fire beside me. I saw flames outside on the window of my carriage."
She said tearfully that as she was led away down the tracks, "I saw bodies. I think some people may have died."
Doug Streeter, 50 from Primrose Hill, who was standing in Euston Road when the bomb in Tavistock Square went off in a bus.
"I’m standing there and there was the 'bam'. The noise was staggering.
I didn't see that it was a bus, what I did see was huge chunks of building flying into the street. It looked like the blast pushed the building out into the street.
"I immediately thought 'bomb'. Then everything began to connect. G8, post-Olympics, someone's obviously got this thing figured out."
A man who survived the Aldgate blast told of passengers’ terror when their train ground to a halt. Arash Kazerouni, from Edmonton, North London, 22, said: "There was a loud bang and the train ground to a halt. People started panicking, screaming and crying as smoke came into the carriage. A man told everyone to be calm and we were led to safety along the track."
"Everyone was terrified when it happened. When they led us to safety, I went past the carriage where I think the explosion was. It was the second one from the front. The metal was all blown outwards and there were people inside being helped by paramedics.
"One guy was being tended outside on the track. His clothes were torn off and he seemed pretty badly burned."
Kelly Maher, a 28-year-old PA who escaped the blast, told how she had been trapped in her carriage for around 25 minutes before being evacuated.
"I didn’t really get upset until I managed to get out of our carriage and looked down the track and saw the carriage opposite," she said.
"It was completely destroyed and there was smoke everywhere - thank God there wasn’t a fire as people would have been trapped."
Simon Tonkyn, a 51-year-old IT manager was on his way from Paddington to Aldgate when the blast occurred.
"There was just an enormous bang and a lot of smoke," he said. "Serious questions should be asked about the safety of these trains.
"A group of us got fire extinguishers and were able to smash through the carriage door and I now just feel totally numb."
In Russell Square, commuters saw a packed double decker ripped to shreds. Belinda Seabrook said she saw parts of the vehicle hurled into the air. "I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double decker bus was in the air," she said. Mrs Seabrook said the bus was travelling from Euston to Russell Square and had been "packed" with people turned away from Tube stops.
"It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air, I think it was the number 205," she said.
"There must be a lot of people dead as all the buses were packed, they had been turning people away from the tube stops. "We were about 20 metres away, that was all."
Simon Corvett, 26, from Oxford, was on the eastbound train leaving Edgware Road Tube station when the explosion happened.
"All of sudden there was this massive huge bang," he said. It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered.
"The glass did not actually fall out of the windows, it just cracked. The train came to a grinding halt, everyone fell off their seats."
Mr Corvett, who works in public relations, said the commuter train was absolutely packed. "There were just loads of people screaming and the carriages filled with smoke," he said.
"You couldn’t really breathe and you couldn’t see what was happening. The driver came on the Tannoy and said ‘We have got a problem, don’t panic’."
Mr Corvett, whose face was covered in soot, joined other passengers to force open the train doors with a fire extinguisher. He said the carriage on the other track was destroyed. "You could see the carriage opposite was completely gutted," he added. "There were some people in real trouble."
Sarah Reid, 23, a student doing work experience, was on the carriage next door to the one which was struck by the explosion. Speaking after the ordeal, having been led out down the track near Liverpool Street station, she told how she saw a carriage ripped apart with the roof blown off.
"I think some people may have died," she said.
"I was on the train and there was a fire outside the carriage window and then there was a sudden jolt which shook us forward.
"The explosion was behind me. Some people took charge. We went out of the back of the carriage."
She said the explosion happened at 8.50am but she was not able to get off the carriage until 9.30am. Miss Reid said an announcement came on but cut off after saying: "Hello".
"There was really hard banging from the carriage next door to us," she said, describing events immediately after the blast.
"That was where it happened," she added.
She said there was a fire which she had seen initially outside the window of her carriage. Describing being led away from the scene, she said: "A carriage was split in two, all jagged, and without a roof, just open.
"I saw bodies, I think."
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