Multiple blasts paralyse London

Large numbers of casualties have been reported after at least six explosions on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.
UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke said several explosions in central London had caused "terrible injuries".

The BBC's Frank Gardner said Arab sources said the blasts were probably the work of al-Qaeda but police have not confirmed a terrorist link.

All Tube services and bus services in central London have been suspended.

London police chief Sir Ian Blair urged people to stay where they were and not to call emergency services unless it was a life-threatening situation.

Sir Ian said there had been "many casualties" but said it was too early to put a figure to those killed or injured and he reassured the public that an emergency plan was in place and the situation was "steadily coming under control".

Mr Clarke told reporters outside Downing Street: "The health services are in support to deal with the terrible injuries that there have been."

Sir Ian Blair said there had been at least six explosions, but said the picture was still "very confused".

Scotland Yard said explosions have been reported at Edgware Road, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Russell Square, Aldgate East and Moorgate.



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.

Prime Minister Tony Blair is to make a live televised statement on the explosions in London at 1200 BST, Downing Street added.

All London Underground services have been suspended indefinitely and bus services in central London (Zone One) have been halted.

A spokesman for Vodafone said emergency services were being given priority access to the mobile phone network which was causing problems for other users.

One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere".

Loyita Worley, who works for a City law firm, said she was on the underground train when an explosion took place in the next carriage, while it was in a tunnel.

The 49-year-old said: "All the lights went out and the train came to an immediate halt. There was smoke everywhere and everyone was coughing and choking, but remained calm. We couldn't open the doors."

Once the doors were opened they were taken along to Liverpool Street station.

She said the carriage where an explosion happened was "black on the inside" she saw people who appeared to have their clothes blown off, and she saw bodies lying inside the carriage.

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

SO scary, my brother got me out of bed where i was reading and eating salt and vinegar popcorn just now to watch the news- one of my best ever buddies is going to London on saturday to see her friends and i dont WANT her to die :( i hate baddies honestly why cant people just be NICE dont they have consciences sheesh. :ninja:

Bloody hell. the roof of the double decker bus is on the ground in front of it.

Prepare for another crackdown on civil liberties and the rights of non-europeans.

From Starwars.com Forums, a user in London posts............

It's probably some splinter of the IRA (or alternatively a crazy bunch of anti-G8 guys) doing this, it's amazing how terrible peoples memories are of the stuff that the IRA has done in the past 30 years. Naturally the Arabs are blamed immediately, but hey.

EDIT: And classic quote Sloanie .

And it's... the Arabs again. The IRA don't go that hard out when they bomb shit.

Firstly thanks for you wonderfully considered opinions.

Secondly it now seems there were just 4 explosions, currently 37-50 dead, 300-700 injured. Emergency services coped magnificently with the attack. No panic in the streets, now we just need to find a term for terrorism when it doesnt envoke terror in the masses.

Thirdly, if I heard George W Bush say again that 'we' will bring those responsible to justice I will scream. The Americans can fuck off. This is Britains problem and they will be leading the investigation. Who the hell does GWB think he is? President of the World? He'll demand that those responsible are extradited to the US. He will demand death penalties. He can kiss my ass.

My thoughts are with my family and friends in the UK.

The IRA dont bomb anyone anymore. They sell drugs.

He's thinking he can use this as political capital, and he's right.

Out of curiousity, when was the last IRA/IRA splinter group bombing anyway?

Maybe. But at home in the US. Not in the UK. I am still to hear much remorse from the smug little prick. Just that he can sort it out. Fuck you GWB

The Real IRA did a Post office bombing in May 2001 and there was a car bomb in London in August of the same year. But the Official IRAs last bombing seems to be the 1998 atack at Omagh. The phrase "Don't shit on your own doorstep" seemed to have been ignored by the IRA and the end was nigh.

From Ireland online:

Tis pretty fucking horrible! It makes me so angry that terrorists think they can get their message accross by blowing up people, ditto the americans though, this whole situation is fucked quite frankly and i don't see an end to it anytime soon :angry:

Glad to hear your family are okay Sardonic, haven't heard from mine yet :(

Imagine the backlash if they blew up the queen.

And for those of you who feel so very safe 12000 miles away from all the action, I just got an e-mail from a friend here in NZ

Enjoy your weekend. And be thankful you have one to enjoy

Well, it happened whilst I was working last night, and boy did it affect the English. So many scared people trying to get through to family.

We had BBC running live, last I can remember was 7 bombs, and Tony Blair was leaving the G8 summit.

My Irish co-worker made a very valid point as well: that's America, Spain, and England. Who else has been supporting the "War on Terrorrism"?

"Um... Australia?" was my reaction.

/edit: just checked BBC World. I stand corrected on the 4 bombs. 35 dead, more than 700 injured.

well Australia have had the Bali bombings, lest we forget...

From another BBC web site HERE

Quote from the organisation calling itself the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda [literally the base] of Jihad Organisation in Europe.

So to answer the above questions: Next up Denmark and Italy

i dont want charl to go to london tomorrow, call me neurotic but i luv her heaps :s (in a friends way)

edits: oh holy crap i just remembered i have cousins in england...dont know what part...gnnnnn.....

Maybe Blair shouldn't have illegally invaded Iraq to disarm it of WMD nobody thought existed, huh?

Uh...

I mean...

Arab are evil! They kill randomly and for no reason!

My sister lives in Central London, she walks to work though but apparently her husband got off the tube just 10 mins before the blast, pretty scary.

We heard the news just as we got off the ice for our game in Queenstown, our captain freaked out cause he also has a sister in London that catches the Tube from the Houston station, he didnt find out till later that night that she was fine though.

If you have information about expats over there, or want to hear when there is information, call 0800 RED CROSS. I just rang about two friends I haven't heard from yet. The MoFA doesn't have these details, so it's helpful for them to learn.

there is no justification for this.

Of course there is. It's just not justification in terms of your own values.

agreed. but my sympathy waivers.

I have sympathy, of course. Just not for Blair.

I texted people as soon as I heard, and one friend replied, "My God, that's awful! I mean... THERE ARE NO INNOCENTS IN A DEMOCRACY!"

Terrorist response to imperialist adventurism is a predictable consequence. If this was a response to something other than a crime, I would have far more sympathy and outrage, of course. If London was hit because the mayor allowed women to walk around with no veil, for instance, I'd be pissed off. But that's not the kind of thing that makes people angry enough to kill. Rather, London was hit because Blair involved his country in an immoral, illegal, unprovoked aggression against a defenceless target, killing tens of thousands of people.

It's regrettable, it's criminal, but I wouldn't say it was unpredictable, unexpected or, in many contexts, unjustifiable.

You know, one might almost believe that God is on Bush and Blair's side. Dubya was a hopelessly lame duck all through his presidency right up to September 11 - when he suddenly turned himself into a kind of terrorist-crushing superhero to millions of ignorant and traumatised Americans.

Likewise Blair has just barely made it through the last election amid calls to resign, and now he gets to stand on TV, manfully staunching tears as he stutters out a message of hope from his AutoCue. This might have saved his career...

On second thoughts, maybe there is no god, let alone one on Bush and Blair's side.

Phew, just heard, family are safe, they were holidaying in Italy! I hope that the people you all know are safe and well :)

And on another note........if those al Qaeda fuckers dare try and mess with Italy the whole Mafioso will unite and fuckin destroy them....they may have bombs but we got pissed off Italians (especially those Sicilians, gotta watch out for them, nasty bunch!) :P

And since when did italy have troops there?! :huh:

I hate to say it, but Australia could be next, Bali wasn't quite retaliation Al Qaeeda style, it was just some pissed off Muslims, wasn't it?? Correct me if i'm wrong :)

Bali was retaliation al-Qaeda style. Sorry.

It's the US who hasn't been hit yet, since the illegal aggression began.

No see, it hit close to home for me because my sister and brother in law are IN LONDON, and I saying "fucking terrorists". Im not saying "stupid Blair should have stayed out of Iraq", innocent people don't need to die because of stupid politicians. Yes I know innnocent people died in the middle east too but the cycle has to stop somewhere.

It's my understanding that the illegal aggression started out of the US being attacked in the first place? Which essentially came from years of America pissing off a lot of people, so i don't think it would be right to assume that America is next?? Perhaps they could be because of Iraq, but Al Qaeda are being smart and attacking America's allies thus, if this (terror attacks) continues, America will be left standing alone when everyone else realises it's not worth supporting them.

How about blaming the terrorists for a change? You think that if it weren't for the war in Iraq they'd be kindergarten teachers?

Moral relativism can suck my balls.

Britain won't be one of those, this shit is nothing compared to the Blitz.

Indeed, we should blame the terrorists, it's their mindset, their fanatical belief in an archaic religon that sees them do this kind of thing. Unfortunatley it's a viscious cycle that sees these kind of tragic events happening because no one will do anything differently, the superpowers will continue to see war, invasion and strong-arm tactics as a way of controlling the power structure between themselves and those who choose to fight against them and the dissenters/dissidents will continue to use fear, terror and cruel and senseless attacks to try to take down the superpowers and bring them to their knees.

What kind of religon and belief system teaches it's followers that it is noble to kill yourself and many innocents in the name of God? All for a cause that is not neccessarily fully understood or where there is propaganda and misinformation running rife in that particular society?

I fucking hate religon, it takes over peoples minds and hijacks their morals and sense of reality.........it's the blind leading the blind, for religon is founded on principals that are not neccessarily relevant in the present society, but yet people follow them. The Muslim religon is a particularly fucked one, not all Muslims are ignorant and horrible but i've seen it and heard about it, there is something seriously wrong with the belief system they are promoting.........but then again it could be said that there is something wrong with the society that I inhabit, my mindset, from their perspective..........it's such a complex topic and full of things i doubt any of us will ever understand, so i guess we just have to accept the fact that we live in a society of fear and terror, for what reason, we do not know, we are not Muslims or Americans, we are not Dubya or Osama, we don't know why any of these things happen, we can speculate till we are blue in the face, all i know is that millions of innocent people die ever year and it would be nice, naieve but nice, if these terror attacks could stop, if war where more soldiers are dying in peace time than in combat would not be a necessity to ensure the survival of these capitalist nations.........when you think about it, the whole situation is a fucked up waste of human life. You will be told, 100 people have been killed in this attack or that attack, but think about this, for every one person, they have family/friends/loved ones that will also be affected and suffer because of that one death, so 1 million people might have been killed due to war but 4 million people are affected by it...........sooooooo. i shall finish my rant here :P

PS. You smart asses do not have to correct my numbers above, there is always one who will say, "well if 1 million people died then that would mean that.......blah blah blah.......which is ridiculous". It was just an example................

anyone who bombs or organises to have bombed someone else is a fucking waste of flesh and vital organs that would have better, worthier homes in burns victims and people on donor lists. however, an eye for an eye does NOT work, there is no justification for killing innocents. fez is right, this has GOT to stop somewhere. otherwise world leaders are just condemning their people to be mercilessly, brutally murdered. how can their consciences allow them to do this? how?

Yeah, but it won't stop.............it'll never stop, it's been this way since as far back as anyone can remember.........there is something just incredibly fucked up with humans and how they relate to each other in instances such as this.........i think we are fatally flawed.............

I'm sure if western nations keep out of the middle east we'll be completely forgiven, after all if you can't trust a terrorist who can you trust?

No one................ :ph43r:

I do feel extremely bad about what has happened. But you need to get your facts straight about the religion.

Try comparing the number of innocent lives lost as a result of so called war on terrorism. That is : compare the millions lost in Middle East, South East, basically whole East VS in US, EU etc. OKay so there were 50-100 innocent lives lost last week but look at the big picture, US & EU will most likely end up with blood of 1000x(50-100) innocent lives in time to come.

I totally agree, these pppl need to go. They need to change their mind set etc. But you have to understand the reason why they are doing what they are doing. Islam does not preach terrorism. Keep religion out of this.

The whole al quida probably started back when USSR occupied Afghanistan, when US was supplying full support and then left them stranded, same thing US did with Iraq (Sadam), obviously Iraqi's will retaliate. That has affected the whole nation "Afghans". Their country got fcked, the whole generation lost. Don’t you think they will do what they can to get back at US etc. Pretty much any one affected by the trauma last week will get some sort of support (counselling etc) , who did that for War victims. They are left to coup with it alone, on their own. So to them it doesn’t make any different, they have been there, done that, seen it all.
Unless you educate, and provide proper counselling to guide them out of their hysteria, these things will happen.

Personally, if US had instead of bombing the nation, provided support for proper schooling etc... They would have been thankful. So where is Osama? All teh resources, the power, the arsenal... the $$$ spent on war, the war crimes and you cant find 1 single person?

I rekon he is dead and both US & EU know about this. They are just fckin around, all they need is an excuse. "OIL"


What exactly do you think is the next generation of Iraqi's (who are children right now) are gonna do!!! I hope they are educated so they can come over their anger etc.


Islam is just an easy excuse for these people, its a free ride. Blame it on the religion, Its the simplest excuse anyone can come up with. So please, get your facts straight.
I do sympathise, I've got my own cousins living in London and thank God they ae okay. You cannot blame religion.

And that somewhere is at white people dying!

England threw the first punch.