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London Official Confirms Subway Blasts
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Three London Underground stations were evacuated at midday Thursday, and the London police commissioner confirmed that four explosions occurred in the subway and on a bus. The Fire Brigade was investigating a report of smoke at one station.
Emergency services personnel were also responding to some sort of incident on a bus in the Hackney neighborhood.
Police said there was one report of an injury.
The Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations were evacuated. Emergency services personnel were called to the stations, police said. There were reports of a nail bomb that exploded and/or a backpack that exploded at Warren Street but those reports have not yet been confirmed.
The head of Scotland Yard said in a brief press conference Thursday that commuters and other Londoners should stay exactly where they are; he said it's possible more portions of the transit system will be shut down.
Some witnesses said they heard gunshots at the Warren Street stop but according to Sky News, police believe those noises were actually detonators going off for bombs that didn't explode.
"People were panicking. But very fortunately the train was only 15 seconds from the station," witness Ivan McCracken told Sky News.
McCracken said he smelled smoke, and people were panicking and coming into his carriage. He said he spoke to an Italian man who was comforting a woman after the evacuation.
"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack," McCracken said. "The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."
Services on the Victoria, Hammersmith and Northern lines were suspended following reports of a number of incidents, the London Underground said.
"I was in the carriage and we smelled smoke -- it was like something was burning," said Losiane Mohellavi, 35, who was evacuated at Warren Street. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."
On the No. 26 bus in Hackney, a stagecoach official said there was a blast on the upper level of the bus, which blew out the vehicle's windows.
Keith Roberts, a shopkeeper near where the bus was sitting empty, said the bus driver was speaking to police and not only the bus but nearby houses were also evacuated. Roberts and another witness from the Sheperds Bush station who called in to Sky News said they were told by police to get off their cell phones.
The concern is that authorities believe that at least two bombs have not gone off, one of which could be on the bus. Cell phones work on radio frequencies, which could set off the potential bombs.
The reports came exactly two weeks to the day that four homicide bombers attacked three subway stations and a double-decker bus in London, killing 52 others.
Simon Marks, president and chief correspondent for Feature Story News, was reporting from the Warren Street Underground station for FOX News. He said the area was cordoned off as dozens of fire trucks and emergency vehicles were arriving.
"I think this looks like much more than a false alarm at this point," Marks told FOX News.
More than an hour after the reports, Metropolitan Police said they were not treating it as a major incident on a par with the July 7 attacks.
However, the incidents were hauntingly similar to the blasts two weeks ago, which involved explosions at three Underground stations simultaneously -- quickly followed by a blast on a bus. Those bombings, during the morning rush hour, also occurred in the center of London, hitting the Underground railway from various directions.
Thursday's incidents, however, were more geographically spread out.
London Ambulance said it was called to the Oval station at 12:38 p.m. and Warren Street at 12:45 p.m. The July 7 attacks began at 8:51 a.m.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was scheduled to meet with various British intelligence agencies Thursday and with Australian Prime Minister John Howard. He canceled a visit to a school in East London, which was in the same general area as the potential bus bomb.
President Bush was briefed on the London incidents, according to White House spokesman Scott McClellan, who said U.S. officials are "monitoring the situation closely.'"
Washington, D.C., Metro officials said the city's subways, which have been on a higher alert since the July 7 London bombings, will see an increase in security and bomb-sniffing dogs.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has also been advised and is monitoring the situation. There is no plan to change the terror threat level at this time; the Department of Homeland Security is still gathering information.
The concern among U.S. officials in these situations is whether there would be legitimate follow-up attacks by the same group responsible for the July 7 bombings, or "copy cat" incidents, of lesser severity and effectiveness.
FOX News' Wendell Goler, Catherine Herridge, Amy Kellogg and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Originally Posted by BaseballFanatic
