FILE: From euphoria to horror - the day that changed London. A look back at the tube and bus bombings of July 7th 2005

Record ID: 335767

  • Title: FILE: From euphoria to horror - the day that changed London. A look back at the tube and bus bombings of July 7th 2005
  • Date: 6th July 2006
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR, SURROUNDED BY OTHER LEADERS, SAYING: "All of our countries have suffered from the impact of terrorism, those responsible have no respect for human life."
  • Embargoed: 21st July 2006 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Transport
  • Reuters ID: LVA8I774LLWURNZBL72K012PXUJL
  • Story Text: From one extreme to another-- July 7th 2005 was the day that changed London.
    On July 6th Londoners were screaming in jubilation at having won the Olympic bid for 2012. The following morning it was screams of pain, as four suicide bombers detonated themselves on the capital's transport network, killing 52 innocent people and injuring hundreds more.
    At 0850 BST (0750GMT) three of the bombers simultaneously detonate their devices.
    Shehzad Tanweer sets off his bomb between Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations on the eastbound Circle line. He takes seven peoples lives along with his own and injures 171.
    On a westbound Circle line train at Edgware Road, Mohammad Sidique Khan explodes his backpack, killing six others and injuring 163.
    And on a packed Piccadilly line train, Germaine Lindsay kills 26 others and injures more than 340 as he explodes his bomb in between Kings Cross and Russell Square tube stations.
    Almost an hour later, at 0947 BST (0847GMT) the fourth suicide bomber, Hasib Hussain, detonates his bomb on a number 30 bus at Tavistock Place, killing 13 others and wounding 110.
    For several hours the picture is one of confusion, with London Underground reporting at various times a power surge, a power failure, a derailment and a person trapped under a train. It is not immediately clear just how many explosions there has been, nor exactly where.
    The emergency services slowly began to realise the scale of what they were dealing with as dazed survivors eventually walked out from the tunnels.
    Covered in soot, bloodied and in shock, the passengers spoke of scenes of horror down below. Severely injured people, who had lost limbs, lay trapped in the wreckage of the trains.
    As emergency services struggle to deal with the injured, hundreds of commuters who witnessed the blasts walk away from the scene without receiving any psychological help.
    Central London becomes a ghost town, with normally bustling roads deserted. With the tubes shut down, millions of Londoners find their way home by walking.
    First confirmation that the blasts were a terrorist attack comes from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is attending a G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland.
    Flanked by U.S. President George Bush and other world leaders, a visibly shocked, Blair vows that Britain will not be intimidated.
    In the following days Britain reels from the information that the suicide bombers were "home grown". The British public struggles to deal with the realisation that young men who were born in England chose to attack their own country.
    The Arab television network Al-Jazeera, airs a video-tape made by Sidique Khan.
    Speaking in a heavy Leeds accent and dressed in Arab head dress, the married father-of-one and teaching assistant says into the camera: "Your democratically elected governments continue to perpetuate atrocities against my people all over the world. Your support of them makes you directly responsible."
    Exactly two weeks after the July 7th attacks, London was targeted again. Unexploded devices were found on three trains and on a bus -- all failed to detonate. Five men accused of the plot are later arrested and will face trial in September of this year.
    The following day, on July 22, police hunting the would-be attackers shoot dead Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes, at Stockwell tube station, mistaking him for one of the men they were searching for. The Metropolitan police force later accept full responsibility for the fatal error and describe it as a tragedy.
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