Posted on 07/07/2005 3:15:34 AM PDT by MadIvan
Several people have been injured after explosions on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.
A police spokesman said there were "quite a large number of casualties" at Aldgate Tube Station.
And Scotland Yard confirmed one of several reports of explosions on buses in the city - in Tavistock Place - but said the cause was not yet known.
UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke said several explosions in central London had caused "terrible injuries".
"The health services are in support to deal with the terrible injuries that there have been," Clarke told reporters outside Downing Street.
Number 10 said it was "still unsure" whether the explosions were a terrorist attack and although casualties were reported, no further details were yet available.
Ministers are meeting to clarify the situation and the government will make a statement later, Leader of the House Geoff Hoon told the Commons.
One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere".
And the Press Association quoted union officials as saying sources had told them there had been at least one explosive device on the Underground.
British Transport Police said incidents took place at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Old Street and Russell Square stations.
Scotland Yard confirmed they were assisting with a "major incident" and said there were casualties.
Hospitals have said they are no longer accepting non-emergency cases, BBC Five Live reported.
The National Grid, which supplies power to the Underground, said there had been no problems with its system which could have contributed to the incidents.
'Screaming and crying'
Jacqui Head, from BBC News, who had just left King's Cross station on a Piccadilly Line train as an explosion happened, said: "Everything was normal. Suddenly there was a massive bang, the train jolted.
"There was immediately smoke everywhere and it was hot and everybody panicked. People started screaming and crying."
The train was kept in the tunnel for 20 minutes and no announcement was made to explain the delay to passengers, she added.
Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, near Kings Cross, told Five Live: "My only thought in the midst of all this confusion is that after the celebration of yesterday (for the Olympic 2012 London success) for people to be evil enough - if it is the intentional causing of death and injury - and think that they can justify this in any circumstances is completely unacceptable."
London Fire Brigade said four crews were at Liverpool Street and more were on their way.
Another passenger, who had left the Tube at Fenchurch Street Station, and walked to Aldgate East, told BBC Five Live that he saw injured people.
"As I walked through the bus station I could see people lying on the ground, black, as if they'd been covered in smoke. There were about three or four people on the floor being treated."
Eyewitness Paul Woloszyn from BBC News, who was at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria Line, said: "We were told there was a bomb at Liverpool Street station.
"I was on the Tube, and they stopped the train and told everyone to get off and evacuate the station."
He said staff had said the entire Tube network had been affected, and leaflets had been handed out with details of alternative bus routes.
Another eyewitness, Dorothy Molloy, had been on a Tube train at King's Cross and said "staff just chucked everyone out of the station".
She said staff there had not given any details, but she said two passengers she had spoken to had said they had received messages saying there had been bombs.
"People didn't really know what was going on, they were just huffing and puffing and saying how annoying it was," she said.
"People don't seem to be panicked, but there's so many police and ambulances coming into the areas. People are just concerned, and some are just annoyed at the delay."
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead.
In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;
Let pry through the portage of the head
Like the brass cannon; let the brow o'erwhelm it
As fearfully as doth a galled rock
O'erhang and jutty his confounded base,
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean.
Now set the teeth and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath and bend up every spirit
To his full height. On, on, you noblest English.
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Dishonour not your mothers; now attest
That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you.
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war. And you, good yeoman,
Whose limbs were made in England, show us here
The mettle of your pasture; let us swear
That you are worth your breeding; which I doubt not;
For there is none of you so mean and base,
That hath not noble lustre in your eyes.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'
We will triumph.
Regards, Ivan
I just woke up.
Is this the thread to read?
Please know that your friends here in America have you all in our hearts and our prayers. The British people have survived far worse in the past and will come through this stronger and more resolved. I hope they can quickly find the monsters responsible for this and deal with them appropriately. God Bless.
Good ideas all, and I have also said a renunciation of everything associated with islam would garner citizens the opportunity to remain in this country under house arrest or some type of wherabouts know detention with the opportunity to continue work sufficient to support a family.
The nation of islam must somehow get the message, the response must begin now and must be such that suicide bombing is a thing of the past. All muslim travel into this country must cease.
We know that islam is the cause, the motivation, the religion responsible fot these attacks, and whether there are good muslims becomes a non-issue. They are all responsible by the continued lack of renunciation of all that is islam. A festering sore, that needs a lot more attention than it is now getting.
America stands with Great Britain. Prayers for your country and it's citizens!
Yes. Six or seven bombing; subways and at least one bus. The bus was a suicide bomber.
No numbers yet.
No western country has the gumption to squash radical Islam within their own political borders. Yet, should we find a threat or pestilence in our own home, we would exterminate it without a second thought.
Here's the long running one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1438133/posts?page=1743#1743
And that is the British heart which survived the bombings of WW2. My dear father served from an airbase in your country during that time and from the stories he told of the British people's courage, I have always felt a kinship. And now this. We feel your anguish, anger, and sorrow. Your country is in our prayers.
If nothing else, you are far more poetic in your presentation. And I mean that both as the comparison between you and I, and our respective national leaders.
Before this is done, you will have re-typed every one of Churchill's wonderful speeches. I hope you have found them online and are cutting and pasting.
The look on President Bush's face was like steel. It brought
home the rush of memories seeing the sadness and determination
listening to Blair.
'Power surges' do NOT happen on double-decker buses!
We stand with you and your country Ivan. You have my deepest condolences and sympathy. The terrorists will see hell very soon.
The mosques are the terrorists safe houses. They are not places of worship if they are used for plotting war.
Time to do the politically incorrect thing!
Maybe now people will see they have to fight terrorism in Iraq and the Middle East or it will hit them where they live. We have to stop appeasing them, no matter what country we live in. How very sad for London. She is in my prayers.
Plan "B" is the only thing that will make it stop.
Hearts and minds isn't working.
Bringing them Democracy isn't working.
Plan B. It worked with the first suicide bombers (Japan). Let's give it a chance with the Muslims.
"All muslim travel into this country must cease."
Agreed, it should have happened on 9/12/01. That evil death cult must be erradicated from the face of the earth.
Ann Coulter was right: Invade their countries, kill their leaders, convert them to Christianity.
And the horse they rode in on!
Bastards.
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