London hit

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Tweet7 explosions across the city in subways and buses. So far 2 confirmed dead and over 100 injured.

[Equalizer]

TweetPrime Minister Blair Calls Terror Attacks 'Barbaric'

By JANE WARDELL, AP

LONDON (July 7) - Three explosions rocked the London subway and one tore open a packed double-decker bus during the morning rush hour Thursday. The blasts killed at least two people and reportedly injured more than 90 in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called a series of ''barbaric'' terrorist attacks.

Blair said it was clear the attacks were designed to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. The prime minister said the meeting of world leaders would continue but that he would return to London.

''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,'' said Blair.


Multiband:
Blasts Rock London

Broadband:
Blair Calls Attacks Terrorism
Eyewitness Describes Chaos
Witness Describes Subway


A group calling itself ''The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe'' posted a claim of responsibility for the blasts, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Web statement, republished on the site of the German magazine Der Spiegel, could not be immediately confirmed.

Britain's Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there were three explosions in the subway and one on a bus. ''We do not know who or what organizations are responsible for these terrible criminal acts,'' Clarke said.

The blasts came one day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics. Giselle Davies, a spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee, said the committee still had ''full confidence'' in London.

Bloodied and bandaged witnesses reported panicked crowds fleeing the blast sites. A witness at the bus explosion said the entire top deck of the bus was destroyed.

Sir Ian Blair, London's police chief, said he was concerned the explosions were a coordinated attack but said he wouldn't speculate on who was responsible. He said officials had found indications of explosives at one of the sites.

Police reported ''a number of fatalities'' at one London subway station. ''Things are still relatively confused,'' Superintendent John Morgan said.


More Coverage


· Scotland Yard Had Warning
· European Markets Sink on News


Denying an earlier report, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said that Israel was not warned by Scotland Yard in advance of the blasts.

''We have been at a very high state of alert. Of course if there had been any kind of specific warnings we would have dealt with it,'' Blair said.

One witness, Darren Hall, said some passengers emerging from an evacuated subway station had soot and blood on their faces. He told BBC TV that he was evacuated along with others near the major King's Cross station and only afterward heard a blast.

Police confirmed an explosion destroyed a double-decker bus at Russell Square in central London.

Paul Woodrow, an official with the ambulance service, told reporters that rescue operations were ongoing and that ''there are large numbers of casualties.'' Officials at the Royal London Hospital told BBC that 95 injured had been brought into that hospital alone.

Jay Kumar, a business owner near the site of the bus blast, said he ran out of his shop when he heard a loud explosion. He said the top deck of the bus had collapsed, sending people tumbling to the floor.

Many appeared badly injured, and bloodied people ran from the scene.

''A big blast, a big bomb,'' he told The Associated Press. ''People were running this way panicked. They knew it was a bomb. Debris flying all over, mostly glass.''

''I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double decker bus was in the air,'' Belinda Seabrook told Press Association, the British news agency.

Police said incidents were reported at the Aldgate station near the Liverpool Street railway terminal, Edgware Road and King's Cross in north London, Old Street in the financial district and Russell Square, near the British Museum.

Bradley Anderson, a subway passenger, told Sky News that ''there was some kind of explosion or something'' as his train reached the Edgware Road station in northeast London.

''Everything went black and we collided into some kind of oncoming train,'' Anderson said.

Simon Corvett, 26, who was on an eastbound train from Edgware Road station, said: ''All of sudden there was this massive huge bang.''

''It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered,'' he said. ''There were just loads of people screaming and the carriages filled with smoke.

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

London's cell phone network was working after the explosions but was overloaded and spotty, limiting communication.

The explosions sent stocks plummeting in Europe, with several of the major indexes down 3 percent.

On March 11, 2004, terrorist bombs on four commuter trains in Madrid killed 191 people.

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TweetTerrorists Strike London With Series of Blasts

Thursday, July 07, 2005



LONDON — A series of explosions struck London's public transportation system Thursday in what Prime Minister Tony Blair (search) called a coordinated series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks, most likely to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit in nearby Scotland.

After several hours where public officials cautioned against reaching conclusions about what caused at least six blasts on subways and buses, Blair gave a brief televised address where he concluded it was a terrorist action.

"It's important, however, that those engaged in terrorism realize that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people and a desire to impose extremism on the world," an emotional Blair told the world.

"Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilizations in the world."

At least two people were killed and nine injured in the nearly simultaneous blasts, and officials shut down the entire underground transport network. Media reports said the number of casualties was about 90 people. Police said they believe there may be a "number of" fatalities.

"There have been a number of dreadful incidents across London today," said Home Secretary Charles Clarke (search), Britain's top law enforcement officer. He said there were "terrible injuries."

"At the present time, we're still trying to establish what exactly has happened," said Blair. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families" of the victims.

The near simultaneous explosions came a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics (search) and as the G-8 summit was getting underway in Scotland.

A previously unknown group, "Secret Group of al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe," claimed responsibility in the name of Al Qaeda for the blasts, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. The group claimed the attack in a Web site posting and warned Italy and Denmark to withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, ANSA said.

The claim could not be verified and did not appear on any of the Web sites normally used by Al Qaeda.

An explosion destroyed a double-decker bus near Russell Square not long after several blasts were reported on London subways, police said. A witness said the entire top deck of the bus was destroyed.

"I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double decker bus was in the air," Belinda Seabrook told Press Association, the British news agency.

She said the bus was packed with people.

"It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air," she said.

One Sky News reporter in Russell Square reported that "body after body" is being pulled from the Russell Square tube station as ambulances show up. Doctors apparently are wandering around in orange suits going down into the tube tunnels. Some of the wounded are exiting the station covered in silver blankets; many stretchers are being carried out.

One witness, Darren Hall, said some passengers emerging from an evacuated subway station and that some passengers had soot and blood on their faces. He told BBC TV that he was evacuated along with others near the major King's Cross station and only afterward heard a blast.

One Sky News reporter covering Scotland Yard said sources told him there are indications that one bus explosion was caused by a homicide bomber.

Officials shut down the entire underground network after the explosions. Initial reports blamed a power surge, but officials were not ruling out an intentional attack.

The attacks came a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and as the G-8 summit (search) was getting underway in Scotland.

A spokesman for the Olympic committee says it still has full "full confidence" in London as the host of the 2012 Games.

Blair, who was hosting the world's most powerful leaders at Gleneagles, Scotland, said he would leave the G-8 meeting for awhile to meet with police and other officials but said the rest of the leaders would remain. The G-8 gathering is focusing on climate change and aid for Africa -- but from which Iraq has largely been left off the agenda.

"Each of the countries around that [G-8] table have experience with the effects of terrorism and all of the leaders ... share our complete resolution to defeat this terrorism," Blair said in his address Thursday. "It's particularly barbaric this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa, the long-term problems of climate change and the environment."

The G-8 leaders are expected to issue a statement of their own regarding the attacks.

Police said incidents were reported at the Aldgate station near the Liverpool Street railway terminal, Edgware Road and King's Cross in north London, Old Street in the financial district, Russell Square in central London, near the British Museum, Aldgate Station and Leicester Square, which is the equivalent of New York City's Time Square. A police official also told reporters there was an incident on a bus in Tavistock Place.

London Ambulance Service said several vehicles had been dispatched to the area near Liverpool Street station.

Bradley Anderson, a subway passenger, told Sky News that "there was some kind of explosion or something" as his train reached the Edgware Road station in northeast London.

"Everything went black and we collided into some kind of oncoming train," Anderson said.

Simon Corvett, 26, who was on an eastbound train from Edgware Road station, said: "All of sudden there was this massive huge bang."

"It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered," he said. "There were just loads of people screaming and the carriages filled with smoke.

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

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush had been briefed, but offered no other details. Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur said that Bush's presence had agents monitoring the situation in London, but that the investigation was being left to British authorities.

U.S. officials said they had no intelligence that suggests similar attacks are planned for the United States; there are no plans currently to raise the terror alert system.

Bomb-sniffing dogs and armed police officers were sent to patrol Washington's subways and buses Thursday. About 1.2 million people a day ride Washington's buses and trains. A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said recent intelligence indicated that London was considered a prime target for Islamic extremists, in part because Al Qaeda was having difficulty getting people into the United States.

Candace Smith, spokeswoman for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, said security in Washington's transit systems was stepped up "immediately" in response to the rush-hour explosions in London.

Liz Kirkham, spokeswoman for Tayside Police Force, which covers the Gleneagles area, said no additional security precautions were being taken at the summit as a result of the blasts, as substantial measures had already been put in place.

Despite early reports that British police warned the Israeli Embassy in London of such possible attacks just before the first explosion, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Israel was not warned about possible terror attacks in London.

"There was no early information about terrorist attacks," Shalom told Israel Army Radio later. "After the first explosion an order was given that no one move until things become clear. "

Israel was holding an economic conference in a hotel over the London subway stop where one of the blasts occurred. Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supposed to attend the conference, but "after the first explosion our finance minister received a request not to go anywhere," Shalom said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[Equalizer]

TweetOH BOY! This is not good.

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TweetNo it isn't. According to an unamed Israeli source, they were warned ahead of time. Some group associated with Al Quaeda is claiming responsibility.

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TweetCheck out the article I posted i guess just seconds before you did.....in the original article there was a link to another article claiming Scottland Yard had a warning.....I dunno man, I would think if they were gonna do something like this they would do it full force and make sure alot of peope die but thats my opinion. Sure has been alot of things going on in Britian with the war and such.

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Tweet"Secret Organazation of Al-Queda Europe" , i dunno sounds like a tom clancy book to me. Dr. Kelley was killed not to long ago and many govt officials, former MI6 operatives are talking about how sloppy it was. If you dont know who Dr. Kelley is check it out there is alot of interesting and conflicting things going on.

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TweetI've never been one for conspiracy theories but I can't help but to wonder if this is an actual terrorist attack or someone trying to set up Blair to take the blame for his sidekick status with Bush.

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TweetIts hard to say...by nature im not a conspiracy theriost but when it comes to this subject I have many many doubts.

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TweetNow they're saying 45 dead and 1000's injured.

[geesler]

TweetThats really horrible

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Tweet45 dead? wow thats quite a difference from 2 earlier.

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Tweetid say it hits the hundreds with all the injuries

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TweetI wonder what this is gonna lead to !!

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TweetTHEY ARE SAYING CHICAGO MAY BE A TARGET TODAY