Blasts rock London; Blair says 'terrorist attacks'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-07 19:27

Explosions rocked London on Thursday, killing several people and wounding scores in what Prime Minister Tony Blair said was an apparent terror attack coinciding with a meeting of Group of Eight leaders in Scotland.

general view of the scene following an explosion near Russell Square in London, July 7, 2005. A series of explosions ripped through London's underground system on Thursday morning, killing several people, in what appeared to be co-ordinated attacks to coincide with the start of a G8 summit in Scotland. [Reuters]

Witnesses saw the top was ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square close to King's Cross train terminal and the twisted wreckage of another in Tavistock Square nearby.

Several underground subway stations also were hit.

"It is reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London," Blair told reporters at the summit. He said he would return to London.

A doctor at Aldgate underground station in the east of the financial center of the city said at least 90 people were wounded at that location alone.

London's police chief Ian Blair said there were indications of explosives at one of the blast sites.

"We are aware that one of the sites certainly does contain indications of explosives," he told Sky Television. "We are concerned that this is a co-ordinated attack."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

London has so far escaped the 2004 Madrid-style bombings blamed on al Qaeda, and the blasts on Thursday left London residents in shock.

People were seen streaming out of one underground station covered with blood and soot. Passengers were evacuated from stations across the capital, many in shock and with their clothes ripped to shreds, witnesses said.

"We think there are about six explosions. There are many casualties," Ian Blair said.

The city's streets were gridlocked and financial markets plummeted as it became increasingly apparent that the blasts were an attack, and not a power surge on the underground train system as had been reported.

The exact cause of the incidents, which occurred one day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics, was unknown.

Police confirmed that two people were killed in an explosion at London's Aldgate East underground station. There were fears of more fatalities in the damaged buses.

Security experts said the apparent attacks bore all the hallmarks of the al Qaeda network.

"If what are looking at is a simultaneous bombing, and it does look like that, it would very certainly fit the classic al Qaeda methodology which centers precisely on that, multi-seated hits on transport and infrastructural targets," said Dr. Shane Brighton, intelligence expert at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense.

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