London Terror Attack
Current Affairs 07/07/2005 |Yikes.
CNET: At least 45 die in London blasts
> Witnesses saw the top ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square close to King’s Cross train terminal, and three more apparently coordinated explosions caused carnage on packed subway trains as Londoners made their way to work. > > Security sources told Reuters there were fatalities at all four bomb sites, and Sky Television said at least 45 people had been killed. A further 150 were seriously wounded, and hospital staff said some were unlikely to survive. > > “I was on the bus,” said one dazed passenger. “I looked round and the seats behind me were gone.” > > “You could see bodies on the road outside,” said another eyewitness, Peter Gordon. “There was smoke everywhere. It was carnage.”
CNN: London bombs kill at least 33
> Paddick said the first explosion had come at 8:51 a.m. BST (O351 ET) near Liverpool Street, Aldgate and Aldgate East Underground stations, where seven were confirmed dead. > > At 8:56 a.m. there was a second explosion on a Piccadilly Line train near Kings Cross and Russell Square tube stations, where 21 were confirmed dead. > > At 9:17 a.m. there was an explosion on a train traveling into Edgware Road station, affecting two other trains, with five confirmed dead. > > At 9:47a.m there was an explosion on a bus at Upper Woburn Place near Tavistock Square. Fatalities have been confirmed, but the number is unknown at this stage. > > There were 700-900 people on each of the affected trains at the time, he added.
Flickr: Photos tagged with ‘london’, London Bomb Blasts Pool, London Explosions Pool
Metroblogging London and Londonist are both covering events.
[See also: Boy in the Pool | It’s all in the name… | Flickr Badge in Weblog Posts | Bush targets Al-Jazeera for bombing | Bomb your hometown ]
5 Responses to “London Terror Attack”
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Cheryl
Bertamum
Michael Hanscom
Snail_5
Bob
July 7th, 2005 at 2:29 pm
You know, when I first saw the news on CNN I was momentarily gripped with a fear not unlike the fear I felt on the morning of 9/11. Then mere seconds later I was gripped by a much stronger fear of the reactions of both the UK and US governemnts to this attack. All I can think of is more things like the Patriot Act waiting to be gleefully accepted by a fearful populace seeking some sort of security even though they’re not really in danger. I am gripped by fear of how the Bush Administration will spin this tragedy to get what he wants out of congress.
And another question pops into my mind, Bush is in Scotland for a G8 conference and Guiliani is in London — coincidence? Consider all the possible implications yourself.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:11 pm
Don’t worry about us Stacy - we’re used to having our capital city bombed, and we’ll fight Blair’s anti-civil liberties agenda just as hard after this as we were planning to before. Unless you meant Bush’ll use it to drive more laws in the US? Can’t help you there, I’m afraid.
What most of us here in London are thinking isn’t ‘oh my God, terror, we must have a war to save freedom, we’re in such danger’. It’s ‘bollocks - how am I going to get into work tomorrow with the Tube closed?’. Hitler bombed us and didn’t beat us, the IRA tried and failed - this lot are just bloody amateurs compared with that.
Michael - I have some more links on my blog if you’re interested.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:15 pm
Actually, at this point, I’m more concerned about the US’s reaction than the UK’s. I’ve been taking a few minutes here and there to bounce around various weblogs (Boing Boing has a good set of links to start with), and most people in the UK seem to be coping with it quite well. I’ve come across more than a few posts where after making sure loved ones were contacted, the next most pressing worries were figuring out how to get home/back to work tomorrow, and where the closest pub was.
That’s not minimizing the tragedy of those who died or lost loved ones at all, understand. It’s just nice to see far fewer reactionary “BOMB ‘EM ALL!” responses than would be likely had we in the US been hit again.
Over here, I fully expect GWB to trot it out as evidence that “the terrorists are still out there and want to KILL YOU ALL because they HATE FREEDOM”, give the moron majority* a good scare, and continue on our path towards a police state. Oh, joy.
July 7th, 2005 at 3:17 pm
(laughs) Looks like we were typing at about the same time, Andy, and ended up saying much the same thing. Great minds think alike and all that, right?
July 7th, 2005 at 7:08 pm
Seems that way :o)