/ 9 July 2005

No SA citizens confirmed dead in London

No South Africans have been confirmed killed in the bomb blasts in London on Thursday, the Department of Foreign Affairs said on Saturday.

”There is no confirmation of media reports that there were four South Africans killed,” spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.

Unconfirmed reports earlier on Saturday said that four South Africans had been killed in the blasts.

Mamoepa said the names of a man and woman injured in the blasts will not be released, at their request.

The man from KwaZulu-Natal is still in intensive care, while the woman has been discharged from hospital, he said.

The rush-hour attacks on London’s transport system killed at least 50 people and injured about 700.

A Dutch Reformed Church minister in London said he knows of five South Africans who were injured in the explosions.

”One is still in hospital, in intensive care. The others have been released,” Dawie van Vuuren said.

Although the four received minor injures, Van Vuuren said: ”The trauma was terrible.”

He will read out a list of South Africans still unaccounted for at a church service in London on Sunday, in the hope of having them contact their relatives.

”That’s a way to try to help. There have been a lot of families who have contacted us who still haven’t had contact [with their relatives or loved ones]. Most of them will be for reasons other than for explosions,” said Van Vuuren.

A group of about 40 men from his church took flowers and chocolate to emergency workers at King’s Cross station on Saturday morning, to thank them for their services, he said.

”The Christian message is a message of love and we believe that it can make a bigger difference to the world and London than the blasts,” he added. — Sapa