Police: 3 bombs detonated together
By Don Melvin
Cox News Service
LONDON - The three bombs that ripped through three London subway trains Thursday morning exploded "almost simultaneously," suggesting the use of timed detonators, police said Saturday.
The three blasts, plus an explosion on a double-decker bus almost an hour later, killed more than 50 people. The official death toll remained at 49 on Saturday, and police said an unknown number of bodies remain entombed in a subway car beneath the King's Cross station.
Of the 700 people initially wounded, about 65 people remained hospitalized Saturday.
In a sign of the continued state of alert in England, police evacuated thousands of people from Birmingham's central entertainment district Saturday night and conducted several controlled explosions to destroy suspicious objects, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported. There was no confirmation of any explosive devices being found.
Police, trying to piece together information from emergency telephone calls, previously had said the three subway bombs exploded over the course of 26 minutes. But they revised that estimate Saturday based in part on equipment that records the movement of all trains on the system, called the underground.
"It would appear now that all three bombs on the London Underground occurred within seconds of each other," said Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
"It was bang, bang, bang, very close together," said Tim O'Toole, the London Underground's managing director.
Experts have said close coordination of separate attacks is a hallmark of al-Qaida, the terrorist organization blamed for the 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
The subway bombs went off at 8:50 a.m., Paddick said. The bomb that ripped the roof off of a bus in Tavistock Square, killing 13 people, exploded at 9:47, he said.
The police did not definitively rule out suicide bombings but indicated that they thought the terrorists might still be at large.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said investigators still did not know who was behind the attacks but said responsibility probably could be laid to a group like al-Qaida. He told British Broadcasting Corp. it was "reasonably obvious that it comes from that type of quarter."
Two groups invoking al-Qaida's name have claimed responsibility for the attacks. Police have said they're taking seriously a claim posted on the Internet shortly after the bombings by The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe, a group that also took responsibility for the Madrid commuter-train bombings.
In a second claim posted on the Internet, a group calling itself the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades and named for a former lieutenant of Osama bin Laden took responsibility for the attack. The group has taken responsibility for attacks in Turkey and Spain, but the police have tended to be skeptical about the authenticity of its claims.
Outside the King's Cross subway station, where at least 21 died and more bodies remain, people laid a few dozen bouquets of flowers Saturday. A few candles flickered; a couple of small stuffed animals had also been left.
Other people came to pay their respects, although journalists outnumbered mourners Saturday afternoon.
Notes attached to the bouquets spoke not only of the loss of life but of Britain's resilience.
"We are British and we will stand no matter what!!!!" one read.
"Justice will be served. We will not be terrorized by these losers," another said.
TUBE EXPLOSION REPORTED
There have been unconfirmed reports of an explosion on the London Underground, and an incident on a bus in Hackney, East London.
There have been no reports of casualties.
Stations at Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush have been closed.
At Warren Street there were reports of a nail bomb explosion. Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said police believe this may have been the sound of detonators going off..
Victoria Line train passenger Ivan McCracken told Sky News he spoke to an Italian man who witnessed an explosion just after the train arrived at the platform.
"He told me he had seen a man carrying a rucksack which suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open his rucksack. Everyone rushed from the carriage. People evacuated very quickly. There was no panic.
"I didn't see anyone injured but there was shock and fright.
"There was a smell of smoke."
"The man who was holding the rucksack looked extremely dismayed.
Police have cordoned off the streets around Warren Street station. They said a suspect package had been reported on a Victoria Line train.
Sky reporter Mark White said authorities are "pushing everybody as far back from the station as they can".
Another eyewitness, Sosiane Mohellavi, said "Everyone panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."
Scotland Yard said emergency services have responded to an "incident" on a bus in Hackney Road, on a junction near Colombia Road, east London.
It is two weeks to the day since bombers attacked three Tube trains and a bus in central London.