Millions of Londoners returned to work on Monday riding rush hour trains and buses, trading fretful glances amid security warnings that new attacks could occur as long as the bombers remained at large. The police also closed central streets, including Downing Street, after a suspect package was found in the Whitehall area.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was meanwhile preparing to fend off opposition Conservative calls in Parliament for an investigation into whether last Thursday’s attacks could have been prevented.
After a day of prayers for the victims, mingled with commemorations of heroism on the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, people descended into subway trains and rode the buses to work again.
On Monday, two red police vans blocked both ends of Whitehall, a wide street that runs from Trafalgar Square to the House of Commons, and includes the headquarters of the major government departments such as the Foreign Office.
Police then evacuated cars and pedestrians from nearby Parliament Square, too, where the houses of Parliament and Big Ben are located on the banks of the River Thames.
There was no sign that any buildings were being evacuated, but police moved all pedestrians, including many tourists, from the sidewalks and urged them to leave the area.
An official in Blair’s office said the emergency was called after a suspect package was found in the Whitehall area, but she wouldn’t provide any details. She spoke on condition of anonymity.
A police van arrived at Whitehall with what appeared to be several sniffer dogs, which were being led to drains and electricity boxes on the side of the street.
Whitehall was cleared of all traffic except two buses, one double-decker number three bus, which was parked close to the gates of 10 Downing Street and a single-decker, number 12, which was parked outside King Charles Street., which leads to the Foreign Office.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone rallied Londoners as he rode the underground to work on Monday, saying, ”We don’t let a small group of terrorists change the way we live.”
But some rode bicycles either because they feared further attacks or to avoid underground lines truncated by the police investigation and the continuing search for victims of the bombings, which killed at least 49 people and wounded about 700.
Transport police said one line remained suspended while parts of four other lines were closed.
Although they had no figures, London transport officials anticipated that fewer people would use trains and buses on Monday, but they expected a normal passenger load to return over the next few days.
Commuters shaken by the attacks regarded their neighbours with suspicion as they rode the underground on Monday.
”I was a bit hesitant at first, but I have to use the Tube to get to work,” said 20-year-old office worker Daniel Jakes.
”People were glaring at each other, so I did feel a bit paranoid,” he said.
Janice Rose (55) a traffic warden manager travelling on the underground from West Ealing in West London, said: ”I think I am still traumatised by Thursday, and whoever I see around me on the train or the bus, I see as a suspect.”
Andy Trotter, deputy chief constable of the British Transport Police, warned on Sunday that Londoners can ”defeat the terrorists” by showing up for work and keeping London open ”for business”.
Police said 49 bodies had been pulled from the four blast sites, a blown-apart number 30 double-decker bus and three London underground train tunnels, and they hoped to find no more.
The first victim to be formally identified was named as Susan Levy.
The three train blasts in London occurred on Thursday within 50 seconds of one another at about 8.50 am (7.50am GMT), a level of coordination that bore the hallmarks of an attack by suspected al-Qaeda operatives, and there have been two claims of responsibility by groups linked to the organisation.
”I am confident that the perpetrators will be brought to justice in the end,” Home Secretary Charles Clarke told the BBC.
”Our fear is of course of more attacks until we succeed in tracking down the gang that committed the atrocities on Thursday,” Clarke said.
”That is why the number one priority has to be the catching of the perpetrators.”
Investigators say they have already established that the bombers used a high explosive — they will not disclose further details — and that each device was lighter than 4,5kg.
Deep beneath London’s streets, the detective work was gruelling, particularly in a narrow section of the Piccadilly Line between Russell Square and King’s Cross where a devastated six-carriage train is jammed into a rat-infested, oven-hot tunnel.
Blair insisted late on Sunday that he would dismiss Conservative calls for an inquiry into the attacks, but would instead underline his confidence in the intelligence services.
A Downing Street spokesperson said: ”The prime minister has confidence in the intelligence services, and he won’t be holding an inquiry.”
Home Office Minister Hazel Blears told GMTV Monday that the ”last thing” the security services needed was an inquiry, as they were too busy with a massive investigation into the bombings.
Meanwhile, a ring of human grief continued to spread around a tree close to the deadliest of last week’s bomb attacks in London, where flowers, toys, cards and candles commemorate the victims.
King’s Cross station, north London, lies at the epicentre of the bombings, and it has drawn hundreds of mourners from all walks of life united in sorrow.
”It is a horrible time, but at the same time this experience has humbled me and made me realise life is so short that you just have to make the most of it,” said Patricia Foster (35) a youth worker who has a friend among some 30 people listed as missing following the attacks.
On Sunday evening prayers were said at a candlelight service in Saint Paul’s Cathedral for World War II dead and veterans, and for the terror bombing victims. It followed a day of commemoration led by Queen Elizabeth II.
Londoners also prayed in Saint Pancreas Church, steps from the blast that shredded the double-decker bus.
In a show of religious unity, British Muslim, Christian and Jewish clerics joined to denounce the bombings.
Garden of remembrance
A public garden by the River Thames is being made into a place of remembrance on Monday for victims of Thursday’s bombings in London, Blair’s spokesperson said.
”The aim of the garden is to provide a single place for people to remember the victims of all four attacks, not least because the necessary security around the bomb sites makes it difficult for people to bring flowers and so on,” Blair’s spokesperson said.
Asked how long the garden of remembrance would remain, he replied: ”It will be there for as long as people want it to be there.”
Many Londoners have made pilgrimages to the bomb sites over the weekend, laying flowers and looking at the many posters that relatives of people missing since Thursday have put up.
Leaders of different religious groups were to attend the noon (11am GMT) inauguration of the garden of remembrance, along with Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell. – Sapa-AFP