http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,161768,00.html
Terrorists Strike London With Series of Blasts
Thursday, July 07, 2005
FOX News
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.
