they will not change our way of life

The Queen visited survivors of Thursday's blast yesterday including Bruce Lait, who was wounded while travelling between Aldgate Station and Liverpool Station. (Fiona Hanson, Reuters)

4.5 kg packets of death

Cleric warned of U.K. attack 15 months ago

National Post
Saturday, July 9, 2005
Page: A1
By Philip Johnston and Matthew Fisher
Source: The Daily Telegraph and CanWest News Service

LONDON - The Queen spoke defiantly yesterday as Londoners sorted through the wreckage of Thursday's terrorist attacks and authorities intensified the massive manhunt for those responsible for the series of bombings.

"They will not change our way of life," she said in an unexpected address during a visit to staff and victims at the Royal London Hospital in the city's East End.

Referring to the Second World War bombings that targeted the East End, she said: "Sadly, we in Britain have been all too familiar with acts of terrorism and members of my generation, especially at this end of London, know that we have been here before.

"Atrocities such as these simply reinforce our sense of community, our humanity, our trust in the rule of law."

At least 49 people are known to have died in the rush-hour attacks and more than 700 were injured -- 22 remain in critical condition -- when devices each containing about 4.5 kilograms of high explosives were detonated on three subway trains and a bus.

The worst devastation was in the Piccadilly Line tunnel between Russell Square and King's Cross, where at least 21 bodies and possibly many more remained in two mangled carriages 30 metres below the surface. Emergency workers were finding it difficult to reach the victims and there was an ever-present risk of the tunnel roof collapsing.

While London tried to return to normality, with most transport links running again, police and forensic experts sifted through the wreckage in a gruesome search for bodies and clues.

More than 100,000 calls were made to emergency helplines by people anxious for news of missing friends and relatives. Some, who had travelled to the scenes of the bombings, handed photographs to passers-by in appeals for information.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, said there was no evidence that the carnage was the work of suicide bombers, although it is thought that a terrorist could have been among 13 people killed when a device possibly destined for the Underground exploded on a bus in Tavistock Square. The other bombs exploded on trains between Liverpool Street and Aldgate and at Edgware Road station.

While suicide bombings were not being ruled out, police were working on the theory that a terrorist cell of at least four people planted the bombs on the crowded carriages.

Although they were small enough to be carried in a backpack or duffel bag, they were sufficiently powerful to cause terrible damage in a confined space.

Two of the devices, at Liverpool Street and Edgware Road, are thought to have been left close to the double doors of the subway car and they could have been operated with a timer. It is not known whether the bombers, if they survived, are still in the country or escaped abroad.

Britain's intelligence service said a fundamentalist organization linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was responsible, as with the Madrid train bombings last year, which were the work of north African extremists.

One report yesterday noted that an Islamic leader warned in a Portuguese newspaper interview 15 months ago that a London-based group, Al-Qaeda Europe, was on the verge of a major attack.

"Here in London there is a very well-organized group, which calls itself Al-Qaeda-Europe," Sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed, the Syrian head of the London-based group Al-Muhajiroun, told the Portuguese daily Publico in an interview published on April 18, 2004.

"I know they are on the verge of launching a big operation."

Mr. Bakri, speaking a month after the Madrid train bombings, said it was "inevitable" that London would be hit by a large attack "because they are being prepared by various groups."

Mr. Bakri is suspected of having links with Abu Qatada, an alleged al-Qaeda leader in Europe.

While intelligence officers pursued international links to the attacks yesterday, hundreds of police and anti-terrorist officers were examining evidence and painstakingly going through closed-circuit security-camera film in the hunt for clues that could identify the bombers.

Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, who has become the public face of what has already become the largest manhunt in British history, appealed to Londoners to be the police force's "eyes and ears" and report anything unusual they may have witnessed on the their way to work on Thursday.

"The most important thing I want to get across is that we do need the community's help," Commissioner Hayman, who heads the Anti-Terrorist Branch, said.

John Reid, the Defence Secretary, said he had put the Armed Forces on a high state of readiness to deal with any further potential terrorist threats and hinted that the SAS was also on standby.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, said looking for the bombers was like searching for "needles in haystacks." He said a claim of responsibility on the Web site of a previously unknown group, the Secret Organization Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organization in Europe, was being taken seriously. The statement warned Denmark and Italy of possible attacks.

Some Britons expressed fears that the local cell could be planning further attacks that would paralyze the capital, despite the stoicism of people yesterday.

With security greatly increased, trains, subways and buses ran mostly on time, apart from those sections of the Underground hit by the bombs. Passenger numbers were down about 10%.

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21 bodies still buried in tunnel

"You think you will defeat us? I'll show you something that will make you change your mind"

Sally Pook
The Daily Telegraph

July 9, 2005

LONDON - The dead were still lying under ground at King's Cross yesterday morning.

Above ground, everything seemed almost normal. The sun shone and commuters filed out of the station from the mainline services. Passengers bought their morning papers and coffee like any other day.

Only the Underground was shut, severely reducing the feverish activity of King's Cross at rush-hour.

Northern Line services were running through but not stopping at the station. The rumble of trains, usually so reassuring, could be felt above ground. And 30 metres below, 21 bodies were still lying there.

"It is not a nice place to be," said Chief Inspector Willy McCafferty of the British Transport Police. "It is upsetting. It is a bomb scene in a tunnel. It is pretty dusty. Some of the guys who have been down there have had counselling. They are really upset."

Survivors of the bomb on the Piccadilly Line train were rescued within an hour of the blast, at 8:56 a.m. on Thursday.

The dead were left in the wrecked cars in what is now an official crime scene from which crucial evidence will be gathered.

"Each body is a piece of evidence," said Inspector Ray Shields of the British Transport Police, who was at King's Cross for the fire of 1987 in which 31 people died.

"Once the forensic officers have done what they need to do, the bodies will be removed to the proper place."

The dead were believed to be in two cars toward the middle of the train. Yesterday, unaffected sections were taken away.

Rescue workers spoke of the difficulty of the operation. The tunnels were only large enough for a train. There was no room to manoeuvre on either side of the cars.

"There are broken windows," said Insp. Shields. "The roof and floor are damaged. It is very dark. There is smoke. It's tough down there."

Out in the sunlight, commuters spoke of their determination to get back to normal.

William Austin, from Hertfordshire, north of London, said, "You have to carry on. I have meetings to go to today and there's work to be done.

"People of my generation have grown up with the IRA threat, and we've seen all sorts of bombings down the years. You just have to get on with life. The City [financial district] will be up and running again today and these people won't have any effect."

The Salvation Army and clergymen were at King's Cross to offer comfort and reassurance to travellers suffering from shock.

Major James Williams, head of the Salvation Army for the area, said, "There are people today being very brave who are getting on with it, but I've also spoken to one or two people who are a bit distressed.

"One young woman became very tearful when she got here and found she was not able to travel on a train because of what she had seen yesterday. We helped arrange for a friend to pick her up in a car.

"People are being very resolute. I just think it is the way we British are. They talk about our stiff upper lip and I think it's true. British people will not be beaten. The lovely thing is everybody is helping each other."

One passenger who was on the train that exploded returned to the scene yesterday, despite his fears. "I have to prove to myself that I can do it," said Mark Margolis, 29. "I am very nervous about it. But the longer I leave it the harder it will be. I may just go one stop."

Outside, flowers were left near the entrance to the Tube station.

"You think you will defeat us?" said one card.

"Let me take you by the hand and lead you through the streets of London. I'll show you something that will make you change your mind."

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