London Attack
WE have been sitting all morning in work transfixed to Sky News and the unfolding events in London.
The confused and disturbing TV pictures of the event do not hide the fact that we are actually hearing very little about what has actually happened except that they believe there were seven explosions. And the initial reports are pointing the finger at al Qaeda.
It is clear there are significant casualties and at the moment people are still trapped on a train in the underground following the blasts in six underground stations and on a bus. There is speculation that the bus bombing was carried out by a suicide bomber.
The eyewitness accounts from shocked and scared London commuters send a chill down your spine and I can only hope that those I know in London are safe and watching the news unfold as I am from somewhere safe. What horror today after all the joy yesterday following the news that London secured the 2012 Olympics.
The following is an eyewitness account recounted on the Irish Times website which has free access today to its Breaking News page.
Simon Corvett
Had just got off a train at Edgware Road Tube station when the explosion happened. He joined other passengers to force open the train doors with a fire extinguisher.
"All of sudden there was this massive huge bang. It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered. The glass did not actually fall out of the windows, it just cracked.
"The train came to a grinding halt, everyone fell off their seats. There were just loads of people screaming and the carriages filled with smoke.
"You couldn't really breathe and you couldn't see what was happening. The driver came on the Tannoy and said `We have got a problem, don't panic'.
"You could see the carriage opposite was completely gutted. There were some people in real trouble."
More eyewitness accounts at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4659243.stm.
All pictures came from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4659489.stm
NB I used flickr to upload the pics which I borrowed from BBC. In the first minute the four pictures received more than 700 views, normally you just get a handful, such is the international response to the day.
1 comment:
It is awful. Still, I'm surprised the actual death toll isn't higher... thank goodness the media hasn't done it's usual and given wild casualty numbers and then revised it down. I spent the day on and off the phone with London friends and family. It's an awful business but reckon we'll make an extra brilliant Olympics as a result.
May peace be with all of us before too long.
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