Londen Terror: Deadly Bombings

[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

MSNBC News Services
Updated: 10:22 p.m. ET July 7, 2005

LONDON - As London struggled to emerge from Thursday's deadly explosions on the London Underground — the worst attack on the city since the Nazi blitz in World War II — wary but resilient Londoners returned to work and life, the authorities sifted through the carnage looking for clues to the bombers’ identities, and a city jubilant at its Olympic Games victory only 24 hours earlier hunkered down.

Headlines in Friday’s newspapers reflected characteristic defiance, but caution was an enduring watchword. “This is an incredibly challenging time for London,” Andy Trotter of the Transport Police said shortly after the blasts. “We don't know if this is over yet.”

Four explosions rocked the London subway and tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour, killing dozens in well-coordinated attacks that experts and British officials said bore the signature of al-Qaida.

Thirty-seven people were confirmed killed, and more than 700 were wounded in the attacks.

The timing, targeting of civilians and use of mass transit system prompted officials and terrorist experts to focus on the militant Islamist terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden, splinter groups or copycats.

Racing against time
British investigators — their skills honed by anti-terrorism work from decades of Irish Republican Army bombings — find themselves at the start of a daunting task to track down those responsible for Thursday's explosions.

“There is real passion now in the police to make arrests quickly before further attacks can be carried out,” said Charles Shoebridge, a security analyst and former counterterrorism intelligence officer.

“While (the bombers) are at large now, a second attack is very likely, because there’s no reason for them not to, they’ve broken their cover,” he said. “They will now try to exploit whatever freedom they have left” to kill again, because it is likely they will eventually be caught, Shoebridge said.

British press digs in
British newspapers on Friday marked London’s bloodiest peacetime attack with somber front pages that struck a challenging tone.

“Our spirit will never be broken,” said Britain’s top-selling Sun tabloid, calling Thursday morning’s rush-hour bombings “56 minutes of hell”.

“In the name of New York, Washington, Bali, Nairobi, Madrid and now London, we shall have vengeance and justice,” the Sun said in an editorial, reflecting on a worldwide conflict littered with many tombstones.

“We Britons will never be defeated,” said the Daily Express, which devoted 35 pages to the attacks.

Editorials recalled how dogged Londoners faced the blitz in World War II.

“Just like their predecessors in the face of those earlier horrors, today’s generation of Londoners responded to this latest unprovoked act of evil with a combination of calm and courage,” The Guardian said.

A shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday called the attacks “barbaric” and promised "the most intense police and security action to make sure that we can bring those responsible to justice.”

At the request of Queen Elizabeth II, the Union Jack flag flying over Buckingham Palace was lowered to half staff.

[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

Al-Qaida suspected
The blasts coincided with the start of the G-8 summit in Scotland, and came a day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics.

Lawrence Freedman, professor of war studies at King’s College in London, was among the terrorist experts who said the attacks were in the style of al-Qaida: "It was well-coordinated, it was timed for a political event and it was a multiple attack on a transportation system at rush hour.”

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the blasts had the “hallmarks of an al-Qaida-related attack.”

And, like the Madrid attack on March 11, 2004, the London assault targeted the capital of a country that is a member of the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq, Freedman noted.

There was no credible claim of responsibility, and police were investigating whether suicide bombers were involved. Al-Qaida did not issue claims of responsibility after the Sept. 11 attacks on Washington and New York.

'Remain vigilant'
Police said there had been no warning. The blasts at the three subway stations went off within 27 minutes, starting at 8:51 a.m. in an Underground train just outside the financial district.

Authorities initially blamed a power surge but realized it was a terrorist attack after the bus bombing near the British Museum at 9:47 a.m. — less than an hour after the first explosion.

Authorities immediately shut down the subway and bus lines, which together log 8.4 million passenger trips every weekday.

Trapped passengers in the subway threw themselves on the floor, some sobbing. As subway cars quickly filled with smoke, people used their umbrellas to try to break the windows so that they could get air. Passengers emerged from the Underground covered with blood and soot. On the street, in a light rain, buses ferried the wounded, and medics used a hotel as a hospital.

The bus explosion seemed to go off at the back of the vehicle, said bystander Raj Mattoo. “The roof flew off and went up about 10 meters (30 feet),” he said. “There were obviously people badly injured. A parking attendant said he thought a piece of human flesh had landed on his arm.”

As the city’s transportation system ground to a near-halt, buses were used as ambulances and an emergency medical station was set up at a hotel. Rescue workers, police and ordinary citizens streamed into the streets to help.

Doctors from the nearby British Medical Association rushed into the street to treat the wounded from the bus. “The front of BMA house was completely splattered with blood,” said Dr. Laurence Buckman.

Buckman said ambulance staff told him about 10 people died in the bus blast. BMA doctors treated about nine seriously wounded people in the building's courtyard, two of whom later died, he said.

Some central London streets emptied of traffic. Groups of commuters who had been on their way to work gathered around corner shops with televisions, watching in silence. The mood was somber and subdued.

'We shall prevail'
Blair, flanked by fellow G-8 leaders, including President Bush, read a statement from the leaders. “We shall prevail and they shall not,” he said.

“Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilized nations throughout the world,” he said earlier.

He departed by helicopter back to London. The world leaders continued meeting but their agenda got sidetracked and they decided to delay declarations on climate change and the global economy.

Bush warned Americans to be “extra vigilant,” and his administration raised the terrorism alert for mass transit to code orange. Security also was stepped up in the U.S. Capitol, and at train and bus stations around the country.

Much of Europe also went on alert. Italy’s airports raised alert levels to a maximum. The Czech Republic, Hungary, Russia, the Netherlands, France and Spain also announced beefed-up security at shopping centers, airports, railways and subways.

[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

Claim of responsibility
In an Internet posting, the group calling itself The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for Britain’s involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, but experts cast doubt on that claim.

It was unclear whether there were any suicide bombers involved in the attacks. U.S. officials told NBC News that their British counterparts had discovered some timing devices associated with the attacks, though it was unclear where or how many.

The widespread use of closed-circuit TV cameras in London may help uncover clues to the attacks. More than 6,000 cameras monitor the Underground subway network and 1,800 watch the city’s train stations. Cameras also have been installed on some London buses.

In his statement blaming Islamic militants for the attacks, Blair made an apparent effort to prevent a backlash against the larger Islamic community.

“We know that these people act in the name of Islam, but we also know that the vast and overwhelming majority of Muslims both here and abroad are decent and law abiding people who abhor this kind of terrorism every bit as much as we do,” he said.

Nonetheless, the Islamic Human Rights Commission warned London Muslims to stay at home to avoid any violence aimed at them.

Casualty numbers
In London, Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Brian Padthingy said at least 33 people were killed in the subway system alone. He confirmed other deaths on the bus but gave no figures. The death toll was later raised to 37.

Police put the number of wounded at more than 700. Among them, at least 45 were in serious or critical condition, including victims with amputations, fractures and burns, said Russell Smith of London Ambulance Service.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the blasts were “mass murder” carried out by terrorists bent on “indiscriminate ... slaughter.”

“This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty or the powerful ... it was aimed at ordinary working-class Londoners,” said Livingstone, in Singapore where he supported London’s Olympic bid. Giselle Davies, an International Olympic Committee spokeswoman, said the committee still had “full confidence” in London.

Timeline of attacks
Padthingy said the first explosion hit a London Underground train that was 100 yards into a tunnel outside Moorgate station in the financial district in east London. Seven people died there, he said.

The second blast, at 8:56 a.m., was in the King's Cross station area of north London, and killed 21, Padthingy said.

The third explosion, at 9:17 a.m., was near the Edgware station and killed seven people.

The bus explosion occurred at 9:47 a.m. At least two people were killed there.

Jay Kumar, a business owner near the site of the bus blast at Tavistock Square in central London, said he ran out of his shop when he heard a loud explosion. He said the bus’s top deck collapsed, sending people tumbling to the floor.

Many appeared badly injured, and bloodied people ran from the scene. “People were running this way panicked," he said. "They knew it was a bomb. Debris flying all over, mostly glass.”

Office worker Kibir Chibber said at one subway station that “I saw lots of people coming out covered in blood and soot. Black smoke was coming from the station. I saw several people laid out on sheets.”

Simon Corvett, on an eastbound train from Edgware Road station, described “this massive huge bang ... It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered.”

“You could see the carriage opposite was completely gutted,” he said. “There were some people in real trouble.”



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[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

What do you think happened? And what is your comments

[Paranoid David]

You know what, something weird happened today to my speakers. It was recieving radio signals all the way from London. They had a British accent and I could faintly hear what they were saying... weird, right?

[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

really really wierd!like holy crap wierd!

[Acer]

I think from what they foresaw, it's so sad to see people hurt from the Bombings out of nowhere. London Intelligence didn't receive any word about the bombings, so it's like a surprise attack, and boom! There are the explosions that rocked the city. Wow!

[Mr.TUX (Steven)]

yeah but this is war, there are no surprises to what war can cost or do!