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Blasts rock London transit system
Last Updated Thu, 07 Jul 2005 07:59:13 EDT
CBC News

Two people are dead and scores injured after seven near-simultaneous explosions rocked London's public transit system Thursday morning.

All London hospitals are on major incident alert, the city's emergency plan is in full gear and the subway system is shut down after blasts on one city bus and at least six subway stations.
Traffic camera image from video of the Russell Square area of central London following an explosion on board a bus, Thursday July 7. (AP photo)

Prime Minister Tony Blair said it's "reasonably clear" the attacks were the work of terrorists and aimed to coincide with the opening of the Group of Eight Summit in Scotland.

The roof was blown off a double-decker bus near Russell Square station in central London around 10 a.m. local time. There has been no confirmation of deaths in the bus blast, but witnesses have reported seeing bodies under sheets.

London Police Chief Ian Blair said "incidents" were reported at the following subway stations: Aldgate East, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Tavistock Square, Moorgate and Russell Square.

Fire trucks and ambulances raced to a number of subway stations after several blasts were reported shortly before 9 a.m. local time.

Police have confirmed two deaths and 54 injured in the subway blasts. Witnesses say there are many "walking wounded" coming from the Underground, some covered in soot and blood.
Injured tube passengers are escorted away from London subway station. (AP Photo)

There's currently a rescue operation going on at one subway station where a number of people are trapped on a subway.

"There have been a number of fatalities ... things are still relatively confused," said London Police Superintendent John Morgan.

Officials initially blamed a power surge for the subway blasts, but the police chief has since said he's concerned the blasts are a "co-ordinated attack." Evidence of explosive material has been found at one of the sites, he said.

Italy's European commissioner, Franco Frattini called the explosions a terrorist strike.
Paramedics arrive on the scene at Edgware Road Tube Station in London following an explosion, Thursday, July 7. (AP photo)

There has been no claim of responsibility.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke advised people in the city to avoid any unnecessary travel.

The explosions come a day after London was awarded the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, defeating the frontrunner, Paris.

As many as three million people use the London Underground each day. It's the world's oldest subway system and one of the largest in the world

news like this just takes the wind outta my sails.
what cowards these people are.
its just so disgusting. i cannot even fathom the mind set of a person who destoys life at random. the people who died and who were injured, are innocents. i'm sure some crazy group will claim responsibility and thereby giving mr. bush a new target for his war on terror agenda. he'll keep attacking, they'll keep killing innocents.
today is a sad day.
even sadder is the realization that all this destruction is far from over.

apparently, the death toll from these incidents is much higher than initially reported in the above post.

these terrorist attacks will now give the G-8 leaders an excuse for not addressing the concerns that were supposed to top the agenda at the summit: poverty, debt, health, global climate change. not that the G8 would have done much to help anyway, but now they have a plausible, (though cynical) cover story.

33 is the new death toll posted online. this just makes me sick. and sad, and scared. i just left London on friday morning, i spent 6 days riding the tube all over that city. Edgeware Station is the closest bomb site to where i stayed, near Bayswater Station.

and here we have some political leaders who are actually gathering to talk about trying to do some good in the world, why would anyone want to impede that? the message "get out of Iraq" persists, but who's listening? "end poverty in Africa" was supposed to be the topic of the day, maybe now both issues will get some serious discussion...


Al Qaeda-linked group claims responsibility

CTV.ca News Staff

A previously unknown group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al Qaeda in Europe," has claimed responsibility for Thursday morning's blasts in London.

In a statement published on a website popular with Islamic extremists, the group says the attacks were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The group also threatens further attacks in Italy and Denmark "if they do not withdraw their troops from Iraq and Afghanistan."

"The time has come for vengeance against the Zionist crusader government of Britain in response to the massacres Britain committed in Iraq and Afghanistan," said the statement, translated by The Associated Press in Cairo.

"The heroic mujahedeen carried out a blessed attack in London, and now Britain is burning with fear and terror, from north to south, east to west," the statement said.

"We warned the British government repeated(ly). We have carried out our promise and carried out a military attack in Britain after great efforts by the heroic mujahedeen over a long period to ensure its success."

Kyle Olsen, a terrorism expert in Washington tells CTV he believes that the London attacks came from an al Qaeda-linked group.

"Certainly, it has all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda-style attack," he told Canada AM.

"Now, whether this is al Qaeda, the Osama bin Laden organization, or one of the many franchise organizations that have sprung up across Europe pledging allegiance and trying to emulate his techniques as we saw in Madrid, that's certainly unknown at this time. But certainly it has all the right fingerprints."

The attacks bear strong similarities to the string of bombings that hit commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004, killing 191 people.

Both were attacks on major transportation systems carried out at the height of rush hour. Both involved a series of orchestrated explosions in quick sequence, apparently using bombs hidden across the system.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Madrid strikes, saying they came in retaliation for Spain's role in Iraq.

British police say they are treating the attacks as a terrorist incident but were keeping an open mind as to who was responsible.

"We have received no claim in terms of who was responsible and so at this time we wouldn't speculate," Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told a news conference.

Chuck Pena from the CATO Institute says many anti-terrorist experts have long predicted that it was only a matter of time before an attack was brought against the UK for its involvement in Iraq.

"I hate to say this, but it doesn't come as any great surprise that Great Britain would be targeted. After all, al Qaeda had said quite specifically, bin Laden has said that nations that supported the United States in Iraq would be targeted," he told CTV.

"All the countries that supported the U.S. decision to invade Iraq are clearly in the crosshairs for al Qaeda or any radical Islamic organization that buys into al Qaeda's ideology."

Pena says if those responsible are really from an al Qaeda spin-off group, it will further bolster Osama bin Laden's cause.

"From bin Laden's perspective, it doesn't get any better than this, because he and the core al-Qaeda leadership no longer have to be responsible for planning, financing, coordinating and recruiting terrorists to attack," he says.

"They know that there are plenty of Muslims out there who are listening to their words and more than willing to take up a call to arms without having any direct connection or communication."

Olsen notes that these splinter groups may be trying to prove to bin Laden their loyalty.

"There is something of an incentive for these branch or spin-off organizations to stage spectacular events of this kind, something that echoes a 9/11-style attack to establish their own credibility."

sad.

I've been watching CNN throughout the day. Another tragic event.

I'm so sad for this world.

You'd think after the US and Britain had been warned so many times that our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan is unwelcome, they'd listen.

But no. They just go on with their imperialistic bullshit and then shit like this happens.

It's so upsetting.

This is devastatingly, frighteningly sad. Words can't express the way I feel. I can hardly function.

But like they say, "not so surprizing".


Thank God we have Saddam in captivity eh?

H

Yeah, that really helped, huh?

We knocked down his statue and everything... claimed the war was over 2 years ago, caught the dude, locked him up and made the world free for democracy, liberated two entire countries....

What good guys we are. See our white hats?

BOOM!!!!

arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I weep for those who where killed or hurt today.

This world is insane.

Escape to an island paradise sounds better by the minute.

I'm ready to go......
like, 3 years ago!

I just feel so utterly bad, and outraged at the same time.
freedom IS just another word, a word that never existed.

Ha ha, the joke is on me. Again.
Why do I believe in anything?
It always backfires.
H

Well I just hope this is not an excuse to bomb some other country. I think that is inhuman too, what about Iraq. All this shit scares the shit out of me. Fuck I don’t want to ride the fucking metros anymore. I want to go live in some fucking tent in the middle of no where. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is a damn fucking shame. Iraq was a shame too. It is also a shame that now MORE RACIAL PROFILEING IS GOING TO HAPPEN… Can you blame us?

Well, yes kind of, and no kind of. I don’t know who the instigator is. I say:

“Potato tomato lets call the whole fucking thing off, no one wins and the fucking children under the age of ten are in charge now! Then maybe we won’t act like children!!!

DEATH TOLL RISES TO 38 IN LONDON

Police confirmed that 38 people have been killed after four near-simultaneous explosions rocked London during Thursday's morning rush hour. More than 700 were wounded, at least 45 of those with critical and serious injuries.

There's word late Thursday afternoon that even more lives could have been lost. ABC News is reporting that British officials told U.S. law enforcement that two unexploded bombs have been recovered in London. Details of the where police found the bombs have not yet been released.

The explosions hit three subway stations and a double-decker bus in near-simultaneous attacks, beginning at 8:51 a.m. (3:51 a.m. ET) and ended about 40 minutes later when a blast ripped the top off a bus in Tavistock Square in central London.

... that's four bombs triggered, and two not, for a total of six known bombs so far. i bet there's two more somewhere. i bet there was 8. G-8?

can i get in on your tropical island oasis?

island oasis?
we'd be sitting, maybe fucking, drinking beers.
on that island, we'd still see smoke.

sirens and smoke.

This terrorist group exploded four bombs and killed (so far) 40 people. Not the best of the bomb makers were they? The only thing that I can pick up from this group's actions is a collective "Fuck you and your Islam bullshit!" The London terrorists are making it more and more unlikely that Islam will retain its good name. A pity... a fucking pity.

The world cannot stand still and not have negative feelings creep in when the name Islam comes into a conversation. No matter how illogical it may be to connect Islam with terrorism, it is the heart that screams out when acts of violence such as todays happens and it is screaming out at these fundamentalist Islamic idiots... I have heard those screams coming from around the world all day...

I fear a much greater backlash... much greater. I don't like it, but I am willing to bet that the vast majority of these active terrorists, the ones that do the actual bombing, are between 18 and 29 years of age... mostly males, mostly sexually repressed by their religious teachers, but we may never know... but only hear their own screams of pain and confusion within the bombs themselves. It's a shame that this minority of zealots must inflict so much harm upon the innocent.

Stay strong, London. You've been attacked before and survived.

although days like this prove that men fail. The death toll has reached somewhere in the thirties, should we be thankful that it wasn't in the thousands? Do thirty dead humans with families outweigh a possible death toll like that of nine eleven? I don't feel any better. Will our world make bumper stickers and tee shirts and posters and forever remember this day?

I don't think so. I can't express my rage. What if I had those responsible tied up and gagged in front of me? Would I kill them?

Is killing ever able to stop more killing? I think of religion in times like this. Maybe religious groups are right. Maybe the end is close at hand. Maybe god set us up to fail. "and he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away." -Revelation 21:4-

From John's pen, to god's ear. It sounds better than anything any man on any news channel in any land has said. Tonight I feel ashamed. Tonight I look at my kind with disgust.

Tonight,
London's children wail.
In disbelief at having to believe.
Terror-istssssss........

Tonight,
London's mothers wail.
Holding a photo of her child.
Terror-istssssss.........

Tonight,
Londons candles burn.
igniting rage, tears, and fists.
Terroristsssssss...........

Yo, Yabyum~ Nice seeing your words around here! It's been a long time. And your little poem was timely.

In regards to your quote - "and he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away." -Revelation 21:4- " - I don't see that as any 'end of the world' per se, as much as a rebirth. Substitute 'He' with "enlightenment" and one can see with new eyes as 'former things pass away'. "Death shall be no more" implies that life, that light within all of us, is eternal, and recognizing this "every tear from the eye will be wiped out and neither mourning nor outcry nor pain (shall) be anymore." Life continues with or without us and it is mind that feeds us with sorrow and despair...and mind alone can never understand "god".