UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Five years since London's tubes and a bus were blown up by suicide bombers

Record ID: 359031

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM/FILE: Five years since London's tubes and a bus were blown up by suicide bombers
  • Date: 7th July 2010
  • Summary: BOY LOOKING AT COLUMN
  • Embargoed: 22nd July 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVA1BG9E9YUBON1A3QFJVEV0XY52
  • Story Text: On July 7, 2005, just a day after London had been celebrating winning the Olympic bid for 2012, the city was plunged into chaos after suicide bombers targeted 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.
    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 north of England accent and dressed in Arab head dress, the married father-of-one and teaching assistant from Leeds 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."
    A permanent memorial to the victims of the bombings, known as the 7/7 attacks, was unveiled last year in Hyde Park. It features 52 stainless steel columns, representing each of the innocent dead. The pillars are inscribed with the date, time and location of each of the four bombing sites.
    Relatives will take part in a private memorial service in Hyde Park on Wednesday (July 7).
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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