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London Hit by Morning Blasts
"The four explosions went off within an hour of each other, beginning at 8:51 a.m., and hitting different parts of the Underground and one red double-decker bus."
By Maya Trabin
During the morning rush hour, London was hit by a series of explosions in subway stations and a crowded double-decker bus. The blasts, which killed at least 37 people and injured as many as 1,000 others, forced officials to evacuate and shut down the entire subway system.
The four explosions went off within an hour of each other, beginning at 8:51 a.m., and hitting different parts of the Underground and one red double-decker bus near Russell Square, an area popular with tourists and close to the British Museum. The busy train and bus lines transport 8.4 million passenger trips every weekday.
Police said they didn’t know whether the attacks, the worst on the British capital since World War II, were the result of suicide bombers or of packages left on the trains and buses. Although the web site of the group “The Secret Organization of al-Qaeda in Europe” claimed responsibility for the explosions, officials say it’s too early to tell who is responsible for the attacks. The same group threatened to carry out similar attacks against Italy, Denmark, and other “crusader” governments in retaliation for their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Prime Minister Tony Blair, speaking from the G-8 Summit in Scotland, said, “We will not allow violence to change our societies or our values, nor will we allow it to stop our work at this summit.”
President Bush also condemned the attacks, drawing a stark line between the work taking place at the summit and the actions of the apparent terrorists.
"On the one hand, you have people working to alleviate poverty and rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS and ways to have clean a environment, and on the other hand, you have people working to kill other people," the president said. "The contrast couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill, those who've got such evil in their hearts that they will take the lives of innocent folks. The war on terror goes on."
Although many of the G-8 leaders sharply criticized Bush and Blair over their decisions in the U.S.-
led war in Iraq, the group of eight held a united front in condemning the London attacks and vowing to step up efforts in the fight against terrorism.
The Department of Homeland Security initially made plans not to raise the U.S. terrorism alert, but later decided to heighten the alert level to code orange on mass transit systems. Department spokeswoman Valerie Smith spoke about the decision, citing that, “We do not have any intelligence indicating this type of attack is planned in the United States.”
Europe was also on alert. Italy's airports raised their alert levels to a maximum. The Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Russia, the Netherlands, and Spain also announced heightened security at retail and transportation hubs.
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