UNITED KINGDOM: Tourists concerned after car bomb found in London's busy theatre area

Record ID: 356400

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: Tourists concerned after car bomb found in London's busy theatre area
  • Date: 29th June 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Mandarin) PAUL ZHU FROM CHINA SAYING: "I think the police will look after the problems and security in London. I don't think it is so dangerous to travel here, or any other big city." (SOUNDBITE) (German) JULIA WITSCHEL FROM GERMANY SAYING: "I'm very scared coming here as a tourist, and yes, it makes me think about what if I was the victim of a terrorist attac
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVA4557I9ZIBZH8R1U8DG672KHKH
  • Story Text: The streets around London's Piccadilly Circus, a popular tourist site, on Friday (June 29) were cordoned off and deserted following the early morning discovery of a car bomb which was defused by explosives experts.
    The bomb was in a car parked outside a night-club in the busy heart of London shortly after 1 a.m. (midnight GMT), when hundreds of people were in the vicinity, Peter Clarke, the head of London's anti-terrorist police, told a London news conference.
    Counter-terrorism police said the petrol, gas and nail-packed device could have caused significant loss of life.
    Curious locals and tourists alike could be seen looking over police cordons and chatting to policemen on the site on Friday. Tourists, like Paul Zhu from China, said they trusted the security measures in the city and were not scared of further attacks.
    "I think the police will look after the problems and security in London. I don't think it is so dangerous to travel here, or any other big city," said Zhu.
    Two visitors from Israel said they felt safe despite the discovery.
    "This didn't make us very anxious because we are used to bombs. It would be incredibly ironic if we are killed in London from a blast. There is a large police presence so it seems like it was pretty serious, we hope everything will be okay," Batia Hermony from Israel said.
    However, her sister added they felt safe in the British capital.
    "We are not aimed (alarmed) by anything and really, we are walking very safely here and it's seems like nothing had happened at all," Rama Hermony said.
    But for some, the incident bore similarities to the July 7 suicide bomb attacks in the city in 2005.
    "I'm very scared coming here as a tourist, and yes, it makes me think about what if I was the victim of a terrorist attack and that scares me. I'm quite scared at the moment," Julia Witschel from Germany said.
    "It's terrible. Well, a lot of tourists come here and walk around and never imagine that this will happen, or rather, that something like this could happen again. As a tourist, I did know that there was a possibility that there could be bombs because of the previous incidents in London but I never thought that when I came it would happen. And this time of the year, there is a lot of movement, a lot of tourists, it would be a real disaster if something like that happened now," Mexican tourist Andre Islas said.
    The bomb alert came almost two years after four Islamist suicide bombers exploded devices on London's transport network, killing 52 commuters. London has frequently been on edge since.
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