Four blasts tore through London’s transport system during the morning rush hour in a choreographed series of terrorist attacks.
Police said at least 37 people were killed, 21 near King’s Cross station, and the ambulance service said it had treated around 350 people, with more than 40 of those in a serious condition.
Three of the blasts were on tube trains and a fourth was on a bus. Explosives were said to have been found at two blast sites.
Below are reports from the main incident sites in order of occurrence:
8.56am – Between King’s Cross and Russell Square stations
The attack with the highest confirmed death toll today was the one on a tube train travelling between King’s Cross and Russell Square on the Piccadilly line, in which police said 21 people had died.
CNN quoted one emergency worker who said he had removed ”several” bodies from the train and that ”at least 13” remained there.
One survivor, Fiona Trueman, 26, was on the train a few minutes south of King’s Cross when it exploded.
Speaking outside the Royal London hospital, Ms Trueman, who works in marketing for Sky News, said: ”It was about three minutes after we left King’s Cross, when there was a massive bang and there was smoke and glass everywhere. I was standing near a window, and I’ve still got some in my hair.
”The lights went out, and, with the smoke, we couldn’t breathe, and we sort of cushioned each other during the impact because the compartment was so full.
”It felt like a dream, it was surreal.
”I was in the second carriage and I think the explosion was in the carriage in front of me, or maybe was even on the track, and the screaming from the front carriage was terrible.
”It was just horrendous; it was like a disaster movie. You can’t imagine being somewhere like that – you just want to get out. I kept closing my eyes and thinking of outside. It was frightening because all the lights had gone out and we didn’t hear anything from the driver, so we wondered how he was.
”Some people were very calm and were telling everybody not to panic, and after a few minutes we started to get messages that we would be unloaded from the back of the train and walked to safety. It took about 15 minutes to walk along the track to King’s Cross.”
Gary Lewis, 32, described the scene at King’s Cross station where the injured were being treated by paramedics. He said: ”People were covered in black soot and smoke. People were running everywhere and screaming. It was chaos.”
9.17am – Edgware Road station
Police confirmed five people died after an explosion ripped through an underground train as it was around 100 metres from arriving at Edgware Road station.
The blast blew through a wall onto another train on an adjoining platform and in total three trains were affected.
One witness said the floor of the train he was standing on was ”blown out” and other witnesses spoke of a huge hole being torn out of the floor.
The Press Association said one man was thought to have fallen through the gap and died. There were unconfirmed reports of another passenger being decapitated.
The train was heading towards Paddington when the explosion occurred. Survivors spoke of being deafened by the blast.
Another report suggested at least one passenger was blown out of the train by the force of the blast. One passenger said: ”Most of us on my carriage were lucky, we just got cuts and bruises, but those next door were in real trouble.”
Another survivor, Ben McCarthy, told the ITV News channel he was on the train but in a different carriage to the centre of the blast. He said: ”There was a quite loud explosion a couple of carriages up from where I was. The carriages filled with smoke.
”At that stage, somebody, a man I think, was blown out of the door of the train. He was under the carriages. Everything was black, and filled with smoke for a while. We were on the train for 20 minutes to half an hour before people came down the track and gradually escorted us to Edgware Road.
”It was terrifying. People were incredibly calm but very, very shocked. The screams from the guy who was under the train obviously made the whole incident so much worse.”
Tony Dodd, 39, who works for Metronet, was one of those who went to help. ”It was pretty awful down there,” he said. ”There were bodies and people were very badly burned.”
Later, speaking outside the station, Superintendent John Morgan confirmed there were ”a number of fatalities” and said ”things are still relatively confused”.
At least 50 firefighters, 30 ambulance crews and just as many Underground first aid workers surrounded the scene. Sniffer dogs were brought in and taken below ground. The walking wounded had cuts and were suffering from smoke inhalation and covered in soot.
Inside the nearby Hilton Metropole, the entire reception and lounge bar was overrun with injured passengers. Shopping trolleys filled with medical supplies were parked near reception as a steady stream of people were treated. One man left the building with a bandage wrapped round his head and his shirt drenched in blood.
8.51am – Between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street stations
Police said seven people died in a blast on a tube train as it travelled between the Liverpool Street and Aldgate East stations, which are both in the capital’s financial district.
One woman caught in the explosion said: ”There were people there screaming out in agony. There were parts of the train all over the track.”
Loyita Worley, 49, was on the train when the explosion went off in a nearby carriage and said the carriage that was hit was torn from ”floor to ceiling”.
She said she had seen some seriously injured people down in the tunnel and saw 20 to 30 ”walking wounded”.
This attack was the first to be reported, with police being alerted to an explosion at Liverpool Street at 8.49am. Initially it was thought that there had been separate incidents at the two stations as well as nearby Moorgate, before it became clear it happened in the tunnel between stations. The first reports said the explosion was caused by a power problem.
One of the dead and around 100 wounded people were taken to Royal London hospital in nearby Whitechapel, although it was not clear how many of these were from the Liverpool Street/Aldgate East blast and how many from other attacks. Ten people at the Royal London were described as being in a critical condition.
Hospital officials said three double-decker buses loaded with casualties were brought to the Royal London. Several other hospitals said they had received wounded people but declined to give numbers.
A man who survived the Aldgate East blast told of passengers’ terror when their train ground to a halt. Arash Kazerouni, 22, said: ”There was a loud bang and the train ground to a halt. People started panicking, screaming and crying as smoke came into the carriage. A man told everyone to be calm and we were led to safety along the track.”
Mr Kazerouni, from Edmonton, north London, said: ”Everyone was terrified when it happened. When they led us to safety, I went past the carriage where I think the explosion was. It was the second one from the front.
”The metal was all blown outwards and there were people inside being helped by paramedics. One guy was being tended outside on the track. His clothes were torn off and he seemed pretty badly burned.”
9.47am – Tavistock Place, near Russell Square
A red double-decker bus exploded near Russell Square, leaving the whole of the vehicle’s top floor a mangled mess, open to the sky.
Police could not give a toll of fatalities but said there were ”many casualties” as a result of the explosion. Early unconfirmed reports said there were at least two dead. Reports said some of the injured had lost limbs.
The explosion went off as the bus was in Upper Woburn Square on the junction with Tavistock Place.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said a bomb had exploded on the back of the top deck. He would not comment on whether the blast was caused by a suicide bomber.
One witness told BBC Radio 5 Live: ”There were at least one or two fatalities laid out on the pavement.”
Bob Mills, a producer for Sky News, said: ”I was one of those who had to be evacuated, walking towards Russell Square, when, suddenly, there was a huge explosion on the street up in front of me and all I could see was the top of a bus completely destroyed.
”We all heard an explosion and everything just disappeared in front of me, and I’m looking at people with blood injuries and walking away from the scene.”
One woman witness said: ”Some people were able to carry other people who were much more badly injured than them. There were a lot of people with terrible burns. People were starting to get very dehydrated and very unwell. When the emergency services got there they had to carry up people in blankets who had lost limbs.”
Sandra Pollins, who was on the street near the bus, told the ITV News channel: ”There was glass flying. Everybody ran for cover in a shop doorway. It was terrifying. It took a minute or two to compose ourselves, then we came out. I could not even recognise that it was a bus. The whole roof had been blown off. There were people just walking around with blood all over their faces.
”People lying on the ground. Absolutely terrifying. People were just staggering off that bus in a complete state. One woman I spoke to said she could not hear anything any more, her partner was still on the bus.”
Debris littered the street and the facade of a nearby building was blackened and scarred by shrapnel. – Guardian Unlimited Â