Section:GDN GB PaGe:4 Edition Date:050708 Edition:03 Zone:
4 The Guardian Friday July 8 2005
Attack on London
Where the bombers struck
9.17am 9.47am 8.56am
Circle line train
at Edgware Road
Seven dead,
at least 36 injured
Explosion occurs in a six-car train as
it leaves Edgware Road station. The
blast blows through a wall, damaging
two other trains. The nearby Hilton
Metropole hotel is used as a
makeshift treatment centre.
Shopping trolleys full of medical
supplies are seen at station. Dozens
of injured are evacuated to nearby St
Mary’s hospital
St John's
Wood
EDGWARE
ROAD
Paddington
PADDINGTON
Bayswater
Israeli
Embassy
St Mary's hospital, The Royal Free,
Paddington Hampstead,
Receives 36 casualties, six 59 casualties suffering frac-
critically injured, 17 seriously tures, smoke inhalation, open
injured and 13 with minor wounds and burns. 12 people
injuries. Serious wounds admitted. One in intensive care.
include lacerations. Others Injured include a four-year-old
suffer from smoke inhalation boy and a child aged 10 or 11
Aldgate Stunned silence,
darkness, panic, then calm
8.51am
Circle line, Liverpool Street to Aldgate.
The London transport system was coping
with the peak of the morning rush hour
when the coordinated terror attack the
capital had feared became reality.
As thousands of commuters poured into
the City to start work, the first bomb
ripped through the second carriage of a
Circle line train 100 yards inside a tunnel
between Liverpool Street and Aldgate
stations.
The blast sent a flash of flame down the
outside of the train as the carriages reared
up, flinging the 700 or so passengers on to
the floor and filling the darkened car-
riages with smoke, grit and debris.
“The first thing I knew I saw silver trav-
elling through the air, which was glass,
and a yellow flash,” said Michael Hen-
ning, 39, a City worker from Kensington.
“Then I was getting twisted and thrown
down on the ground. The blast just
twisted and turned me. I was in the next
carriage but within 10ft of where the
bomb went off. I feel extremely lucky.”
For a moment after the explosion, there
was stunned silence inside the train.
Then, as the realisation of what had hap-
pened began to sink in, the survivors
started to fear the wreckage was about to
be consumed in flames.
“It was very dark all around us,” Mr
Henning said. “People panicked and were
screaming and a few of us were telling
them to calm down. The girls were the
calmest and they got things under control
quickly. We tried to open the side doors,
we were trying to pull them. The London
Underground drivers were trying to get
them open from the outside but they
weren’t moving. There was a lot of dust
and smoke. There was no communica-
tion, no Tannoy, no feedback.”
Like many passengers in his carriage,
Mr Henning had been injured by flying
debris. He had glass in one eye and
dozens of cuts and scratches over his face.
Nevertheless, the sense of panic passed
quickly and survivors concentrated their
efforts on getting off the train.
“We tried to open the doors but the
doors were fixed shut and the ash was
settling everywhere,” said Loyita Worley,
49, who had also been travelling in the
third carriage.
No 30 bus
Tavistock Square
Two confirmed dead
but final toll feared
to be much higher
Bomb explodes on the upstairs deck
of the bus as it travels on diversion
between Hackney and Marble Arch.
Vehicle is packed with commuters
delayed by blast at King’s Cross.
Explosion takes place outside the
British Medical Association’s head-
quarters. Facade is spattered with
blood and body parts. Doctors at the
association fight to save lives
Royal Free
hospital
REGENT’S PARK
MARYLEBONE
Marylebone
St Mary’s
hospital
OXFORD STREET
Mayfair
HYDE PARK
Buckingham
Palace
Police with machine
guns and army
personnel seal off
the palace and
cordon off the area
University College
hospital
University College placed on
major incident alert at 9.30am
and the first casualty is
brought in 15 minutes later. 58
people treated, 27 admissions
and nine or 10 classed as
seriously injured.
As some passengers used their mobile
phones to let loved ones know they were
alive, some of the walking wounded were
moving into less damaged carriages
through connecting doors to get away
from the smoke. “There was blood drip-
ping off them, they were all white," Ms
Worley said.
Mustafa Kurtuldu, a 24-year-old
graphic designer from Hackney, said: “A
lot of them had cuts and blood was gush-
ing out of their faces.”
Above ground, the rescue operation was
already under way as the emergency ser-
vices put their drills into practice. Aldgate
and surrounding streets were sealed off
minutes after the explosion, with ambu-
lances arriving to carry the injured to
nearby Royal London hospital in
Whitechapel. The City of London was
shut down as a 200-metre exclusion zone
was set up around the Aldgate area.
Escape
Half an hour later and still trapped, the
survivors decided to start moving
towards the back of the train in the hope
they could escape from there.
“By the time we got to the back of the
train we could see torches and people
coming up the tracks to us,” Mr Kurtuldu
said. “I still just thought it was an electric
problem because of the bright white
light.”
It was only when they finally made it
out on the tracks and were being led to
safety that the survivors realised the scale
‘People were still in
their seats screaming
with pain and covered
with blood’
Sent at 7/7/2005 23:25
Piccadilly line train
from King’s Cross
to Russell Square
21 confirmed dead,
dozens injured
As many as 900 people are on board
when explosion rips through carriage
during journey between stations. The
Piccadilly line is one of the deepest in
London, making rescue efforts more
difficult. Two makeshift mortuaries
are set up at the nearby Royal
National Hotel and Holiday Inn in
Bloomsbury. There are reports of
passengers trapped in the carriages
hours after the blast
ST PANCRAS
EUSTON
KING’S
CROSS
TAVISTOCK
SQUARE
RUSSELL hospital
SQUARE
University
hospital
Soho
CHARING
QE2 Centre
CROSS
The multi-agency
media centre in
Westminster will be
the focal point for all
press briefings about
the attacks
Great Ormond Street
Children's hospital
The canteen is turned into a
makeshift accident and
emergency room. Treats 22
adults of whom 18 are admitted
for blast injuries. Of those, two
are undergoing surgery and one
is admitted to the children's
intensive care ward
of the carnage. “As they led us down the
track past the carriage where the explo-
sion was, we could see the roof was torn
off it, and there were bodies on the track,"
Mr Kurtuldu said.
Mr Henning said: “There was part of
the side wall missing. Some of the seats
were missing. People were still in their
seats and they were screaming with pain
and were covered in blood down one side
of their body. There was other people that
were trapped and they were just left
there.”
Scott Wenbourne, another survivor,
said: “I saw three bodies on the track. I
couldn't look, it was so horrific. I think
one was moving but I'm not too sure.
“There were also, I think, some bodies
in the carriage, some were moving but I
couldn't really look. No one was attend-
ing to them.”
Derek Price, 55, from Essex, said he was
surprised how calm the survivors were as
they were led along the tracks past the
wreckage. “Some people were upset but
there wasn’t panic, considering you could
only see a few feet in front of your face.”
It took about 30 minutes for the sur-
vivors to make it to the surface. “People
were coming out covered in black soot,
blood and grease. There was people lying
at the side of the station on plastic sheet-
ing,” said Kabin Chibber, 24, who works
in the Dow Jones building above Aldgate
station.
Makeshift intensive care units were set
up on the roadside to deal with the more
seriously injured. Others were suffering
from smoke inhalation, cuts and burns.
Among the walking wounded was Jack
Linton, 14, who suffered cuts to his face.
The schoolboy, from Hawkwell, Essex,
was on his way to a work experience
placement when he was caught in the
blast. “I've got glass in my hair and my
pockets, and my ear hurts," he said.
Gareth Davies, medical director of Lon-
don Air Ambulance, was at Aldgate by
9.10am. “Initially the scene was quite
overwhelming, it would shock anyone
walking into that sort of area. But there
was a quiet efficiency. People were very
quiet and cracking on with their jobs.”
Police at first believed two people had
died in the Aldgate attack. But by mid-
afternoon, as forensic officers began
combing the wreckage, the death toll had
risen to seven, with scores more injured.
Transport chaos
The entire London capital are reported
tube network is to be gridlocked.
suspended after the Mainline train
blasts. All zone one stations including
(central area) buses Victoria and Euston
are cancelled. Many are closed for part
main roads in key of the day. All the
sectors across the main airports
M1
M25
M40
M4
Heathrow
M3
Gatwick
Great
Ormond
Street
Old Bailey
All trials suspended
at Old Bailey for first
time in living memory
BLACKFRIARS
Houses of
Parliament
Security WATERLOO
is stepped
up and anti-
terrorism measures
including security
walls and more
rigorous visitor
checks are in place
Guy's and St Thomas' Royal London hospital,
hospital Whitechapel
Treats 21 patients, three of them Convoy of four buses ferries up
critically injured. Seven sus- to 183 patients to the hospital.
tained major injuries and 11 mi- Eight critically injured, including
nor. Injuries range from smoke one in cardiac arrest. Six people
inhalation and burns to serious operated on. One person later
limb and chest injuries. All died. 123 discharged within
patients are adults; eight hours. Victims suffer injuries to
female and 13 male limbs, and smoke inhalation
King’s Cross Fear as smoke
fills underground tunnel
8.56am
Jo Herbert was convinced she would not
survive. The Piccadilly Line train she was
travelling on was trapped deep beneath
London’s streets between King’s Cross
and Russell Square stations. It was pitch
black and the burning smell was over-
whelming. Acrid smoke was mingling
with the soot blown off the tunnel walls.
Around her, passengers who had survived
the initial blast when the train was rocked
by a massive bang three minutes after
leaving King’s Cross were screaming in
pain and panic.
“I truly thought I was going to die and
was just hoping it would be from smoke
inhalation and not fire. I felt genuine fear
but kept calm (and quite proud of myself
for that),” she wrote later in an email to
the Guardian Unlimited website.
What Ms Herbert and the other com-
muters did not know was that far above
them at street level, central London was
engulfed in a major emergency. Rescue
crews were already responding to the ex-
plosion on the Circle Line near Liverpool
Street but at that stage, it was far from cer-
tain that this was an unfolding terrorist at-
tack.
The London Underground control centre
told the media that the problems across the
tube network had been caused by a power
surge but when the Piccadilly Line bomb
detonated, it became clear that this was not
the cause of the problems but merely a
symptom of something far more sinister. A
Code Amber alert was issued and trains
were moved into platforms so the network
could be evacuated and closed down.
While the Aldgate bomb had gone off on
a train at surface level, the Piccadilly Line
attack hit one of the deepest and therefore
most lethal parts of the network. By last
night, that attack had proved the most
deadly, with 21 commuters losing their
lives and scores seriously injured.
Amid the carnage on the train, the ini-
tial panic had been replaced by an eerie
sense of calm. Some passengers had suf-
fered horrendous injuries: limbs torn off,
horrific burns, faces and bodies gouged
open by debris. Despite the smoke, how-
ever, there was no fire and that was
enough to give the survivors hope. Some
suspected that the train had been hit by a
bomb; most were trying to convince them-
black
operate normally, are suspended for a
although security on time and thousands
some flights is of passengers have
stepped up. The great difficulty
Gatwick Express, making their flights.
Stansted Express The M11 around
and Heathrow Stansted is
Express services congested
M11
Stansted
8.51am
Circle line train
from Liverpool Street
to Aldgate
Seven killed, 10 people
seriously injured,
City airport
100 walking wounded
Bomb rips through second carriage of
train packed with as many as 700
commuters. Explosion takes place in
the tunnel 100 metres from Liverpool
Street station. The device is
detonated as two trains pass each
other, causing carnage on both sides
of the tracks. Commuters escape by
smashing their ways through carriage
M25 doors using fire extinguishers
Stock Exchange
Remains open but
takes action - asking
traders to switch off
certain electronic
trading systems
LIVERPOOL
STREET
MOORGATE
Royal London
hospital
ALDGATE
City
EAST
FENCHURCHŁ
STREET Key to tube lines
Central line
District line
Circle line
Piccadilly line
Victoria line
LONDON
BRIDGE Northern line
Metropolitan line
R iv
er
Tha Bakerloo line
me s
Guy's and St Thomas' Jubilee line
hospital Hammersmith & City lin
The emergency Security
services
Cordon is placed around
Although 1,500 Met police Buckingham Palace. Queen
officers in Scotland for G8 releases message of shock
summit, 31,000 officers are in and support for families
London. Fire Brigade says 200 of injured and bereaved
firefighters in 40 fire engines from Windsor Castle. Israeli
attend the incidents. embassy declares state of
Ambulance service calls in emergency. All trials suspended
vehicles from outside capital at Old Bailey
selves that the train had merely derailed. emerge above ground at Russell Square,
“I turned to the man on my right and asked Barry Kent was waiting anxiously behind
his name,” said John Sandy, one of the sur- the police cordons for his daughter, Noam
vivors. “He said he was Mark and he Rave, 18, who had been on the train.
worked in HR. Then I asked the same of He had managed to speak to her only
the girl on my left. Her name was Emma briefly. She told him there had been “a big
and she too worked in HR. Mark and bang and that they had evacuated the
Emma then began to talk to each other and train, took them up to the station and kept
we started to reassure the other passengers them at the station and wouldn't let them
around us that everything would be OK.” out”. He had started communicating to her
“People were trying to pass messages up by text message at 10.32am. He managed
and down the train. It was like Chinese to speak to her around this time, when he
whispers,” said another passenger,Tom said she was “distraught and crying”. At
Curry, 28, who works for an internet ser- 10.34am his text messages show that she
was in Russell Square station. At 10.38am
she was in the hotel, then a gap before he
‘I thought I was heard from her again. At 11.27am she told
going to die and was him that she was “in Holiday Inn".
The hotel was one of the emergency
just hoping it triage centres set up to deal with casual-
ties from the Piccadilly Line attack and
was from smoke the bus bomb in Tavistock Square which
inhalation, had detonated 49 minutes after the un-
derground blast.
not fire’ Other centres included Camden Town
Hall, Birkbeck College, and for a while
‘People were passing even the local branch of Burger King.
While a fleet of ambulances handled the
messages up most seriously injured, the walking
wounded were also ferried in double
and down the train, decker buses to hospitals across the cap-
like Chinese ital. As well as the nearby University Col-
lege Hospital and Great Ormond Street,
whispers’ casualties from the incidents across the
city were being taken to the Royal
London in Whitechapel, St Mary’s
vice provider. As the minutes ticked by, Paddington, and the Royal Free in
the situation was becoming more desper- Hampstead.
ate passengers were starting to suffer Danielle Kolias, 19, was one of the Pic-
from the heat, the smoke and their in- cadilly Line passengers rushed to the
juries. Dehyrdation was setting in. Royal Free. The Law Society employee
It was not until 40 minutes after the had been travelling to Holborn — one
blast that firefighters and London Un- stop beyond Russell Square — when she
derground staff managed to reach the was caught in the blast, suffering in-
train. Unable to open the doors, they juries to her chest and legs. Her father,
smashed windows and eventually opened George, fought back tears as he said she
the doors before leading passengers along had been admitted to intensive care.
the track in darkness to one of the two sta- “She has no recollection of anything at
tions. A paramedic who witnessed the the moment,” he said.
scene of devastation said one carriage had By mid-afternoon, the dead and in-
been completely destroyed and two were jured had been removed from the wreck-
badly damaged and left smouldering. age of all three other attacks. But the
“I feel very lucky,” said Mr Sandy. “The depth of the Piccadilly Line made the
emergency services got everyone they rescuers’ work far more difficult. It was
could out in a calm and safe way but I several hours before all the survivors
would like to praise Mark and Emma for were evacuated and last night, the oper-
being so level-headed.”
As the survivors finally started to
ation to remove all the bodies was con-
tinuing at King’s Cross.