BBC: London bombings: Police updates

BBC ^ | Saturday, 9 July, 2005, 13:11 GMT 14:11 UK | staff

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A massive intelligence operation is under way after the series of bomb attacks which killed at least 50 people in central London.

The three bombs on the Tube system exploded "within seconds" of each other, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Brian Paddick has told a news conference.

Conditions which the body recovery teams are working under are "extremely unpleasant" said Det Supt Jim Dickie.

Here is a summary of the main points of the inquiry and recovery operation to have emerged.

• All three bombs on the London Underground system exploded within 50 seconds of each other at around 0850 on Thursday. Police say that points to the use of timers

• No bodies have been formally identified. Autopsies and pathologies will begin Saturday afternoon

• Police have set up a support centre at the Queen Mother Sports Centre on 223 Vauxhall Bridge Road in London for people attempting to trace missing friends and relatives

• Bombs used in the attacks were made of high explosive - and probably were not homemade, say police

• Number of bodies trapped below London's King's Cross station is not known. Rescue conditions at the station are "extremely difficult," police say. "It is hot, dusty and quite dangerous."

• More than 50 people are so far known to have died in the blasts, on three trains and a bus. The bus bomb claimed 13 lives

• The first bomb exploded at the Aldgate station in east London. Two more went off within seconds

• People from Sierra Leone, Australia, Portugal, Poland and China as well as the UK were caught up in the blasts

• Scotland Yard Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said the timing of the attacks meant it could not have been carried out by just one person and there was no evidence it was suicide bombings

• London mayor Ken Livingstone said he would be using the tube to get to work on Monday and he urged Londoners to do the same

• He praised the work of the emergency services saying: "Everything we had planned for on this day we knew would happen, worked like clockwork."

• Over 100,000 calls have been received by the Scotland Yard casualty bureau

• The nature of the explosion on the bus is also making it difficult for search teams to be accurate on the death toll, police said

• Each device was likely to have contained less than 10lbs of explosives

• The devices were probably of a size which would fit into a rucksack, police believe

• The Liverpool Street explosion happened 100 yards into a tunnel and the device was in the third carriage of the train.

• In the explosion between King's Cross and Russell Square the bomb was in the first carriage

• The device in the Edgware Road blast was in the second carriage

• It is believed the bombs on the Tube trains were all on the floors of the carriages at the time of their detonation

• Sir Ian said police are still not sure exactly where the bomb on the bus was placed

• He said there was no proof that the bus bomb was the work of a suicide bomber but at this stage "nothing could be ruled out"

• There were two other "controlled explosions" carried out by Met experts on Thursday but no other bombs were found

• Police considered suspending the mobile phone network in the wake of the attacks but decided such a move would have damaged public confidence

• Early indications suggest the attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda, Sir Ian said

• He dismissed reports that the bombings were the work of a terror cell based in the Midlands as "pure speculation"

• Investigators are sifting through hundreds of hours worth of CCTV footage from a huge number of locations and collecting forensic evidence from the bomb sites

• Metropolitan Police staff have been "overwhelmed" by help from other forces in Europe and the US

• Sir Ian said it is "likely" that a terrorist cell is still active in the UK and warned people to be vigilant

• "This is a national issue, not just for London. All of the police forces in the UK are taking steps to increase their footsteps on the ground and to work with communities," he said

• Anyone with information is urged to contact the anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789321

  
  

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Some facts here.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Last Updated: Saturday, 9 July, 2005, 18:02 GMT 19:02 UK

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Tube bombs 'almost simultaneous'

The moments after the bus explosion. (Reader's photo) In pictures

The three bombs on London underground trains exploded almost simultaneously, police have said.

Scotland Yard said the attacks took place within 50 seconds of each other despite previously saying they had taken place over a longer time period.

British Transport Police (BTP) have also warned the recovery of victims could take "days more".

Meanwhile, the government has announced a two minute silence in memory of those killed for 1200 BST on Thursday.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell told BBC News that ministers were planning a special site in London where "families very particularly" could come together to observe the silence.

Bodies trapped

Technical data from London Underground disproved the earlier wider range of timings between explosions, Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick said.

Graphic of the scene of the explosion near Russell Square

And there was still no certainty about the number of people whose bodies remain trapped in wrecked train carriages below King's Cross, it was announced.

This would be a "slow, methodical, meticulous process" in very difficult circumstances, said Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter.

It would take "as long it takes", he said later.

There are still bodies at the two other Tube bomb sites - at Aldgate station and Edgware Road - but it is thought the King's Cross site is the only one where bodies remain on the train.

If life in London is to continue then people are going to get on and off public transport without going through search regimes Andy Trotter BTP Deputy Chief Constable

Forensic experts continue to gather evidence from all the sites as well as at Tavistock Square, the scene of a bus bombing an hour after the Tube attacks.

Mr Trotter said there would not be "airline security" on the Tube, train or buses.

"If life in London is to continue then people are going to get on and off public transport without going through search regimes," he said.

Reception centre

There have been 49 confirmed fatalities in the bomb attacks and concerns remain for a further 25 missing people.

Families search for the missing

So far no victims have been formally identified - and police warn that the process, due to begin on Saturday, could take weeks to complete.

A 24-hour reception centre has been opened at the Queen Mother Sports Centre in Victoria, central London, to help the families of people not seen since the explosions.

The police say that timings show that the Tube explosions took place at 8.50am - and that the synchronisation could suggest that bombs used in the attack were triggered using timing devices.

High-explosives were used in the attacks and were not home-made, say the police.

Mr Paddick denied reports that investigators were looking "for any specific individual".

Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that security and surveillance will not be enough to stop such attacks - and that there has to be an ideological struggle in which terrorism is "pulled up by the roots".

Where the blasts happened

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Blair commended the "inner resilience" of Londoners - as the capital's transport system began to return to a close-to-normal service. There are now services running on sections of all lines on the London Underground.

A book of condolence has been opened - which was signed by Prince William in Auckland, New Zealand.

Terrorism experts have been arriving from Spain to support the inquiry in London, bringing expertise from the investigation into the train bomb attacks on Madrid.

Forensic search

A claim for the attacks has been made in the name of al-Qaeda - by a group calling itself the Abu Hafs al-Masri brigade.

I saw three bodies on the track - I couldn't look, it was so horrific Scott Wenbourne Centre for families opens Police updates in brief Tracking forensic trail Latest travel news Your eyewitness accounts

But the BBC's security correspondent Gordon Corera has urged caution over the credibility of the claim.

Forensic teams working in Tube tunnels and at the other scenes of the blasts are taking swabs to try to determine the type of explosives used.

The roof of the number 30 bus, which was ripped off in the blast at Tavistock Square, has been removed from the scene for forensic examination.

Police are also involved in one of the UK's biggest searches of CCTV footage to see if there are any clues as to the identity of the bombers.

A shrine to bomb victims at King's Cross has been deluged with flowers

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said there were a number of key questions which investigators were analysing.

"One of the most important is were the bombers home-grown British terrorists or was this a hit team that came in from abroad?" he said.

One possibility being investigated was that the bomb maker was an expert who came and instructed the bombers.

Another area was to see if they were "linked directly" to what was left of the core of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan or acting alone.

Search for missing

Anxious family and friends are continuing their search for loved ones who have not been heard from since the bombings.

EMERGENCY NUMBERS Anti-terrorist hotline: 0800 789 321 Missing relatives: 0870 156 6344

The emergency call centre in London has taken more than 120,000 calls from the public.

Those looking for missing people have been contacting hospitals, as well as taking photos and posters to the four blast sites.

Scotland Yard confirmed seven people died in the Liverpool Street explosion, another seven at Edgware Road, a further 13 in the Tavistock Square bus blast and at least 21 at the King's Cross blast. A 49th person died in hospital later.

Some 700 people were hurt, about 69 are being treated in hospital and 15 remain in a critical condition.

Blasts occurred:

Between Aldgate and Liverpool Street tube stations

Between King's Cross and Russell Square tube stations

At Edgware Road tube station

On bus at Tavistock Square

[ncountylee]

Hello hot line?

The East London Mosque is situated on the Whitechapel Road and has 3,000 suspects there now!

[McGavin999]

I would imagine their parliment will be busy Monday morning passing some new laws regarding refugee status.

[bitt]

Hello Hot Line?

Kerry, Durbin and Kennedy have been making some pretty inflammatory sttements...check them out...

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yes, and the BBC is busy, have now added the word Terrorists to their permitted words....and they have this:

[jburkovi]

"Metropolitan Police staff have been "overwhelmed" by help from other forces in Europe and the US "

The world had better wake up to the most senseless, idiotic
mind numbing behavior that has engulfed us. I have no time for liberal pacifist pontificators urging restraint or understanding to those of the so called ROP. Please God, I know you did not have this in your great scheme of things, and I know this is only a test, but please take me before some other innocent child leaves this earth from some ungodly misbegotten fool who wishes for nothing and sees no future.

[50sDad]

Yah. The Towel-Topped here in the USA were universally suspect by we the huddled masses in the days after 911, and I think we were more suspicious of them in the days before that than the Brits were in the past. The UK's massive immigrant problem (that is, too darn many of them) is going to make Joe and Jennie Alepint in the street REALLY edgy in the days that come. Good, I say. Let them know they are being watched.

[McGavin999]

Thank you for the links Ernest. I'm not quite sure the British press gets the part they played in all of this yet.

Like our own media, they have played a major part in the attacks.

[Tannerone]

Al Gore and his ACLU pals want to issue warrants for the arrest of these misguided people.

Would someone please pass the living address of Big Al and the ACLU to the terrorist leaders.

[jwalburg]

That's refreshing. You wonder whether it might be more likely to deter future bombingsif swarms of citizens signed up to fight in Iraq right after this. It is a good first step that they are calling terrorism by its name.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Here is what the Mullahs in Iran have to say:

BBC: UK policy invited attacks - Iran ~~

[Brit_Guy]

Ho de hum. Its going to be a mad couple of weeks here. I've just had my Saturday evening ruined having been evacuated from the pub I was in as they close down the center of Birmingham for a bomb scare. Back home now.

[McGavin999]

Keep us posted. When is your parliment going to wise up on their refugee problem?

[Henchster]

London mayor Ken Livingstone (Socialist) said ....."Everything we had planned for on this day we knew would happen, worked like clockwork."

OK, I'll be the first: What did he know, and when did he know it?

This scumbag has been a terrorist sympathizer from day one, maybe they need to investigate him first.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Here is a thread from a while back on what he said (Grampa Dave brought it up ):

IRAQ: London Mayor Ken Livingstone attacks US President George W Bush, calling him "corrupt".

[Dog]

Bombs used in the attacks were made of high explosive - and probably were not homemade, say police

There is a skilled bombmaker roaming in the UK right now.

I would worry if I were the police this may not be over.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

There is an evacuation in Birmingham right now:

BREAKING NEWS: BIRMINGHAM (ENGLAND) CITY CENTRE BEING EVACUATED