Explosion heard in London

[Starchild]

****e. I was supposed to be passing through those stations tomorrow on my way to a mate's party in Bedford. Going to stay in Suffolk now and get back up to Norwich first chance I get.

Had a few stressful hours trying to get in contact with my friends in London. Everyone's fine but the mobile networks are shot to hell right now. Phone calls aren't being connected and text messages aren't getting through all the time.

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by General Ludd
But the G8 was already happening there, so they could safely plan it in London and if they don't get the olympic bid, fine... it was for the G8. If they do get the bid - bonus, it's both.

Yeah, that is possible, placing a little "bet" on the side. But the olympic games were certainly not the primary factor. And I agree that an attack on London would have stifled celebrations elsewhere even if the games had not gone to London.

[Kropotkin]

So, how many are killed in traffic accidents in greater London per day? If it ends up to be only two fatalites, and let us hope that's the case, those bastards, whoever they are, have not managed to cause much more destruction and mayhem than happy hour. With all that planning, money and effort that they must have spent... ****ers!

[lord of the mark]

My sympathy goes out to the people of London. I hope all of our polytubbies are safe, and that the casualty count goes no higher.

As when my parents were young, we look to London for courage and grim resolve.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Richelieu
This thread really isn't the place to say how i feel about your post. Why don't you start a new one with this as your OP.

And I agree... as in the past, this type of thread is meant to serve as central place for information, a place to hear if our British brothers are ok, and show our concerns...

It is not meant as a political thread... No trolling, or using this thread to make political statements will be allowed.

My heart goes out to our British members... I hope they and their family and friends are all safe...

[Ecthy]

A friend of mine just told me about some technical judgement of him: Because the terrorists bombed the Metropolitan line, where tunnels are wide, they created a much weaker shockwave compared to if they had done it in the Picadilly line. Good luck for the people. Opinions?

[child of Thor]

Originally posted by Richelieu

"Originally posted by bfg9000
I hope this incident strengthens European resolve to fight terrorism in Iraq and throughout the world.

I did not support US intervention in Iraq, but now that we're there it is clear that we cannot leave until that country has been stabilized. This means we need to double or triple the amount of troops there to provide enough security to build infrastructure. These troops will need to come from our European allies since we have pooled all our available resources short of conscription. Maybe with that influx of troops we can pull that al-Qaeda weed named Zarqawi from Iraq and end all terrorist operations there.

Once that mission is complete we can step up our efforts to find Bin Laden and end his reign of terror once and for all.."


This thread really isn't the place to say how i feel about your post. Why don't you start a new one with this as your OP.

DITTO. This isn't the place to make political points imho thanks.

[Combat Ingrid]

According to Sky News, 45+ dead and around 1000 injured atm.

[Jon Miller]

JM

[MikeH]

Rumours that 45 dead at Kings Cross alone.

[Az]

yep, just saw it too.

[Brundlefly]

Sorry. Did not mean to threadjack. Just expressing my anger at the terrorists that perpetrated this vile act.

[child of Thor]

I've been told the bus(es) were jammed packed with people turned away from the tubes........

[Ninot]

Terrorists

Hope as many people as possible come out of this intact, and for London to get back to some resemblance of normalcy ASAP.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
"And given that this is still a relatively free society, we don't screen all rush hour passengers before they board busses or trains, so...."

Until now.
USA didn't have people remove shoes for screening either, for one thing.

Try to get an idea of the kind of effort required to screen ALL passenegers on London Underground, the overland rail network and London Transport's busses from these statistics:

" Since 1993, following a decline in travel associated with the recession of the early 1990s, the total number of morning peak passengers has increased by 12% with 1.1 million recorded in 1998. "

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/marketone.pdf

I should just point out to those who may not be familiar with this, but the British (and Irish) are rather used to sustained campaigns of urban terrorism.


" The first bomb of the Troubles in England detonated at the Aldershot headquarters of the Parachute Regiment, whose soldiers had opened fired and killed 13 nationalist protesters in Londonderry.

The Official IRA bomb killed seven - a gardener and the regiment's Roman Catholic padre - and five women in the kitchens.

A year later, the Provisional IRA, now eclipsing the Officials, sent its first unit to London.

The first and still one of the most infamous operations involved sisters Dolores and Marion Price and nine others who placed four car bombs in London on 8 March 1973.

Ten of the team were apprehended as they attempted to leave Heathrow and two bombs were defused.

But the remaining two, one of which was outside the Old Bailey, exploded, killing one man and injuring some 180 other people.

M62 bombing

Undeterred by the jailing of the Price sisters and others, the IRA regrouped its efforts.

One of the most horrific bombings came in February 1974 when an IRA unit planted a bomb on a coach carrying servicemen and their families, killing 11 people.

The bombing led to a controversial miscarriage of justice when Judith Ward, a woman with a history of mental illness, was jailed for that attack and others.

Later that same year, an IRA unit planted bombs in two pubs in Guildford, Surrey. The explosions killed two soldiers, three ordinary people and injured 50 others.

Birmingham pub bombing

In November 1974, the IRA carried out one of its most devastating attacks when 21 people were killed in another pub bombing in Birmingham. "

Et cetera, et cetera...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1201738.stm

The only sane response is to carry on living life as normal.

Yes, I might be blown up, but odds are I won't be.