Six Bomb Blasts Around Central London

M3rk1n_Muffl3y writes "There were six explosions around London this morning. Information is still emerging, but looks like there were bombs detonated on a bus near Russel Square and several others on the Underground around the City and King's Cross. It's been difficult to reach people on their mobiles."

Al Qaeda group claims responsibility

Source [sky.com]

A previously unknown group calling itself "Secret Organisation al Qaeda in Europe" said it carried out the attacks.
My thoughts go out to everyone in London!

Responsibility

BBC News have reports on Spiegel Online that is displaying [spiegel.de] the text that Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for today's attacks in London.

(translation [spiegel.de])

travel updates for Southern england

London Underground - ALL suspended until further notice (not likely to be today) It is advised NOT to travel into London Marylebone, Cannon Street, Liverpool Street, Kings Cross, St Pancras, Euston, Victoria, Paddington, and Charing Cross are all closed until further notice Thameslink Rail services are not running AT ALL. Brighton and East Croydon stations are closed due to a security alert. According to National Rail Enquiries, Southern trains services are running "normal" services OUT OF LONDON only. Gatwick Express is still running but terminating at Clapham Junction. Heathrow Express has been terminated until further notice. It seems trains are running as far as Clapham Junction. Stations are being periodically closed and re-opened after they have been security checked so do call National Rail enquiries to check your journey first. Trains are of course going to be delayed by varying amounts as a result. Checking your journey by calling national rail enquiries is of course recommended - 08457 484950 option 2 Websites - http://www.networkrail.co.uk/ [networkrail.co.uk] and particularly http://nrekb.com/london_underground.html [nrekb.com]

Mobiles

The BBC is speculating that the reason it's been difficult to reach people on their mobiles is because the government switched the network off, in anticipation of phone-triggered bombs.
This is apparently part of the government's planned response to this sort of situation (the bombs in Madrid were triggered by mobile phone).

Re:Mobiles

The Government switches off mobiles in London automatically in any state of emergency (terror-related or otherwise) to keep the spectrum free for the emergency services. (See, for example, the Channel 4 documentary Mark Thomas's Secret Map of Britain.)

FYI...

Vodafone and others have warned that emergency services will have priority on the GSM networks. Expect congestion and unreachable people if you try to join them on their cell phones.

Londoners have been warned to stay at home. Commuters have been warned to avoid London.

Wow.

I'm amazed at how /.ers make jokes about everything, including people dying in terrorist attacks. We didn't find it very funny when someone crashed planes into our skyscrapers but when Europeans die it's a joke?

Let's be a little bit considerate. Not all /.ers are U.S., i'm sure we have lots of British readers here.

Re:Wow.

Cracking jokes in stressful situations is known to help people cope. My wife used to work in Accident & Emergency, and from the things she told me, Paramedics have the sickest sense of humour.

To our British friends

We stand and mourn with you today. I am truly sorry for the losses you have incurred and weep with you in this terrible moment.

I hope someday my children will understand terrorism as a savage relic of the past but I do not hold much hope for that.

Be strong people of England.

Get the latest from BBC

The latest news directly from the ad-free and registration-free BBC:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/london _explosions/ [bbc.co.uk]

(/. don't allow me to post anonymously...)

Our thoughts & prayers go out to the UK

To preface, we here in the US are certainly sending our thoughts and prayers to the UK today. However, I am disappointed to hear that the stock markets are selling off just because of terrorism. This sort of mindless panic is exactly what they are trying to achieve. To truly defeat terrorism, we have to learn to chin up and plod onward with our lives. If we cower in fear and panic, we allow them to win.

As it breaks...

Been following this for the last 3 hours.
Apparently the Army are now on the streets of london, trying to help EMTs get to the injured, there's a train full of people still stuck underground. Public transport hs been shutdown in London and people are being advised to stay where they are and not go into the city.
Reports are that there were 6 bombs, 3 on buses and 3 on subway trains.

Tony Blair is on his way back to London from the G8 summit in Edinburgh

Allegedly, al Qa'eda are claiming responsibility, but i haven't been able to find a definite source on this.

BBC.co.uk has been swamped, but news.bbc.co.uk is still available (last i checked)

This pisses me off royally... London was set to celebrate getting the Olympics today, huge open air celebrations, but that's all been cancelled. With all the humanitarian work that's been happening in the last weeks, you'd think that malcontents would be a little less belligerent. Progress is being made.
Now the British (who have masses of experience dealing with terrorists) will be pissed off, and the Americans have an excuse to throw their weight around even more...

Also, from talking to people in a few places, everyone seems to be thinking "Are we next?". Yes the British went into Iraq and Afghanistan, but they're been fairly well controlled for the most part. This is extremism at its worst. I don't want to kill the people who did this, i want to slap them in the face and tell them to cop themselves on... this is exactly the opposite of progress.

Some details

I was in the midst of this when it happened. The Metropolitan line was halted, then the Jubilee. The train driver announced a "power surge on the combine", which is probably a prearranged message to prevent panic in an emergency. Trains were then brought into the nearest station and the passengers requested to evacuate. The tube staff were very calm and efficient, and I didn't see any panic. There was defnitely a sense that something unusual had happened, and people were mostly silent as we filed out to the sound of recorded evacuation messages.

Anyone trying to contact friends and relatives, please don't panic if you cannot get through. the cellphone networks are being taking in and out of public service so that the emergency services can use them reliably. Same may be true for regular phone lines.

Watch the Law

It will be interesting to see how the government reacts to this. I'm almost certain they will use this to push through laws like the ID cards and maybe even worse.

Clever

Whomever did this was very clever. If you look at a map of the London underground/subway, the bombs have taken out all the tube lines in Central London. In effect, the transport network has been crippled.

People in the UK are used to it.

Mind you, it's not much of a difference from the days when terrorists would go to dinners at the White House, to fundraise [google.co.uk], and use the hundreds of thousands of dollars given by misguided "Irish" Americans to buy guns and bombs to kill innocent UK civilians in pubs, bars, shops, and town centres [bbc.co.uk].
Seems to have gone out of favour after 11th Sept 01. Funny how it's not funny when it starts happening to you, isn't it?

Re:7 bombs

There were initial reports of one that didn't explode. So there may have been 8 and they may have one to reverse engineer.

That could make things interesting.

Maybe 4 bombs

I heard on CNN that the same explosions were being reported by multiple stations due to the fact that they exploded on trains between tube stations.

Re:Mobile network switched off...

I think it was not so much that the mobile network was switched off rather that it could not handle the load,

Re:Mobile network switched off...

Capacity being diverted to emergency services, too. [bbc.co.uk]

It's really not surprising the phones have gone down - it seems to go pretty far afield. For instance, I told a colleague in Brussels what had happened, and she understandably tried getting hold of friends in London. Everyone's fine, fortunately, but it seems anyone working or living in London is being inundated with calls right now.

The asynchronous nature of stuff like SMSes and email might be an advantage if you're trying to get hold of someone - it's not like a phone call which needs to connect immediately. Alternatively, try phoning a (non-London) friend or relative of the person you're trying to contact, in case they've heard already.

Re:First Post

An Al Qaeda groups has claimed responsibility already.

A lot of experts have also pointed to the attack being "typical of Al Qaeda".

Re:More details

We can be pretty well assured that there will be more than two deaths. The London Underground will have been jam-packed.

In London when there is a problem with the tube, connecting buses are brought in to substitute.It appears that the terrorist attack was carefully organized so that people being moved from the tube onto buses would also be moved into danger. If it is AQ, I'm scared that all of the heavy anti-terrorist legislation appears to have had no effect; if it's not AQ I'm even more scared.

Fuck you, man.

I'm from London and I appreciated it. Stop trying to stamp out humour just because of a few explosions.

Re:Terrible.

[..] bombing random developing-world nations is probably not any sort of solution.

Sweet Jesus, does Dubya know about this?

Re:Fucking Animals

Let this be a lesson for Londoners and the rest of the world that terrorism can strike anywhere, and appeasing them will only make them stronger.

Taking them seriously by instigating overt and invasive security measures is exactly the sort of appeasment and response they want.

This was well planned, and has - so far - had exactly the result the terrorists wanted, London has ground to a standstill with public transport closed for fear of further attacks. London's stock exchange has taken a bit of a tumble, and according to the BBC it has disrupted [bbc.co.uk] the G8 summit.

Not a bad return on the investment in explosives, and I'm sure you could've covered that by betting on the effect on the markets.