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BOMB BLASTS ROCK LONDON

Tanya departed London for Europe on Monday 4th July 2005
and the blasts occurred on Thursday morning

She was in Spain on the Thursday morning,
and
click here to read of how she and her friends heard the news

There are newspaper reports and a number of photos and videos below
......plus a note from Sharon to Tanya and Brett
......and Sharon's "Letter to the Editor" of The Cairns Post paper

More than 30 die in London blasts


Blasts occurred
Between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street tube stations
Between Russell Square and King's Cross tube stations
At Edgware Road tube station
On bus at Tavistock Square

A series of bomb attacks on London's transport network has killed more than 30 people and injured about 350 others
There were three explosions on the Underground - which police said left 33 dead - and one on a double-decker bus in which an unknown number died

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has returned to London from the G8 summit, has described the attack as "barbaric"

An Islamist website has posted a statement - purportedly from al-Qaeda - claiming it was behind the attacks

The Queen said she was "deeply shocked" and sent her sympathy to those affected and the Union Jack was flying at half mast over Buckingham Palace

US President George Bush told reporters at the G8 Summit in Gleneagles that "the war on terror goes on"

All London Underground services have been suspended until at least Friday
Bus services have resumed in central London (Zone One) with diversions in affected areas
Most mainline train stations are open

--
Here passengers flood onto the streets from Kings Cross station
And Emergency Services outside the main line station at King's Cross,
following the shutdown of London's tube network

Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick confirmed 33 people had died in the blasts on the Underground
He said there were 21 confirmed fatalities following the blast at 0856 BST in a tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square
There were seven confirmed deaths after a blast at 0851 BST 100 yards into a tunnel from Liverpool Street station
The train was either a Central Line or Circle Line train
And at 0917 BST an explosion on a train coming into Edgware Road underground station blew a hole through a wall onto another train in an adjoining platform
Three trains were thought to be involved and there were five confirmed deaths so far, Mr Paddick said

He said it was not yet known how many died in the bus blast at 0947 at the junction of Upper Woburn Place and Tavistock Square

Blast timeline
0851 - Seven people die in a blast on a train 100 yards from Liverpool Street station
0856 - 21 people die in a blast on a train between Russell Square and King's Cross stations
0917 - Five people die in blast on a train at Edgware Road station
0947 - An unknown number die in a blast on a bus at Tavistock Place

London Ambulance Service said it had treated 45 patients with serious or critical injuries including burns, amputations, chest and blast injuries and fractured limbs
Some 300 more people were treated for minor injuries including lacerations and smoke inhalation, LAS assistant chief officer Russell Smith added

In other developments
1 - The officer in charge of policing the G8 summit said many of the 1,500 Metropolitan Police officers in Scotland would be urgently redeployed to London
2 - The police set up a casualty bureau number on 0870 1566344
3 - New Olympics minister Tessa Jowell said celebrations to mark the homecoming from Singapore of the successful London Olympic bid team have been cancelled
4 - Pope Benedict said the blasts were "barbaric acts against humanity" in a message to the Archbishop of Westminster Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor
5 - London Mayor Ken Livingstone, speaking from Singapore before flying back to the UK, said Londoners would not be divided by a "cowardly attack"
6 - 54 state schools were closed in Westminster
7 - Mobile phone services across London were jammed with all major networks reporting problems as people tried to contact relatives and friends. A spokeswoman for Vodafone said the emergency services were being given priority

Mr Paddick confirmed police were looking into whether the bus blast was the work of a suicide bomber
But, he added: "It could as easily be an explosive device left on the bus as the work of a suicide bomber. We are not able to determine which it was yet"

He said no warning had been given before the blasts and that no-one had yet claimed to be behind them
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said a previously unknown group calling itself the Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda of Jihad Organisation in Europe had claimed to be behind the attacks in a statement posted on an Islamist website
The group's statement said the attacks were revenge for the "massacres" Britain was committing in Iraq and Afghanistan and that the country was now "burning with fear and panic", he added

Early reports had suggested a power surge could be to blame for explosions on the Underground but this was later discounted

--
In Tavistock Square, eyewitness Belinda Seabrook described an explosion rip through the bus
"I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang,
I turned round and half the double-decker bus was in the air," she said

Describing the bus blast in Tavistock Square, witness Belinda Seabrook said she saw an explosion rip through the vehicle
"I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double-decker bus was in the air," she said
She said the bus had been travelling from Euston to Russell Square and was "packed" with people turned away from Tube stops
"It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air." she said

One caller to BBC Five Live said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines"

VIDEO - click here to watch

"At least 33 people have died and scores have been injured
after four blasts hit the London Underground network and a bus
Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was "reasonably clear"
there had been a series of terrorist attacks"

NEWS UPDATES

Friday 8th July 2005
London bombs killed "at least 50"
More than 50 people died in the London bomb attacks, the head of the Metropolitan Police has said
Forty-nine people are confirmed dead, but Sir Ian Blair said efforts to recover bodies from the wreckage of the Russell Square Tube train continued
He also said that 13 people died in the bus blast in Tavistock Square alone
Over 700 had also been injured in the four blasts

Monday 11th July 2005
Blair vows to hunt down bombers
Tony Blair has promised one of the most "vigorous and intensive" police manhunts the UK has seen to catch those responsible for the London bombings
"We will pursue those responsible wherever they are and we will not rest until they are identified, and as far as possible, brought to justice"
He told MPs that Londoners' "stoicism", since the tube and bus bombs which claimed 52 lives, was an inspiration
The Prime Minister said Britons were "determined... not to be defeated"

FROM SHARON TO HER KIDS

What I really would like is for you both to come home
We will go live in the country
You can both live in a house within five minutes of our place
You can get married and bring your spouses and children to visit for Sunday lunch!
We will even use the good china too!
I know that is obviously not going to happen
and we are not to let those madman stop us from doing what we want
This is the way life is at the moment
The world is not that nice at the moment
but you can can make the place where you are at the moment nice cause you are both nice!!
I am rambling!!
Love from
Your Ever Worrying Mother!!

SHARON HAS HER SAY!!!