Posted on 07/08/2005 10:07:43 AM PDT by Pyro7480
8 July 2005
13 DIED ON BUS - TERROR DEATH TOLL CLIMBS TO AT LEAST 50
By Steve Purcell
AT LEAST 50 people are now known to have died in the terror attacks on London - 13 of them on the devastated No 30 bus - Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair confirmed today.
He added that some bodies still remained in the wreckage of one of the bombed Tube carriages but that it was impossible to say for certain how many because of the instability of the Tube tunnel.
And those injured were not just Londoners, but people from Sierra Leone, Australia, Portugal, Poland and China, too.
Sir Ian said 49 bodies had been recovered but he added that there was "great difficulty" in determining how many fatalities there have been because of the amount of damage at the scenes of the attacks.
He said: "We know that there are more than 50 fatalities.
"There is a great difficulty in determining how many fatalities there are because two of the scenes are very difficult in terms of recovery.
"One is the bus which is taking some time because of the nature of the explosion, but more acutely, the tube train at Russell Square still contains a number of bodies which have not yet been retrieved, we do not know how many there are there."
Recovery of bodies at Russell Square has been delayed because of fears that the tunnel is unsafe.
There were 700 casualties altogether - 22 of them still in a critical condition. A total of 350 people were taken to hospital.
Sir Ian dismissed claims that the atrocities were committed by suicide bombers, saying there was "absolutely nothing to suggest that this was a suicide bombing attack although nothing at this stage can be ruled out".
At a press conference in London, Andy Hayman, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, revealed that each of the bombs contained less then 10lbs of high explosives and they were probably placed on the floor or, in the case of the bus, on the floor or a seat.
Meanwhile Transport for London announced that services on sections of the tube will not be fully restored for "several weeks".
Radical.. No, maybe not enough so.
Prayers for all our British friends.
Very similar to what we, the Israelis, got used to in the last 5 years.
So horrible.
Prayers for the victims and their families.
My prayers go out to all countries suffering from terror.
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