Although quite *what* is a long way from clear.
There’ve been some explosions on the Underground, and at least one (up to four, although I think this involves some double-counting) on the buses. TfL and BTP initially suggested the former were due to power surges (wisely – this is exactly what I would have said, irrespective of the actual cause, to avoid mass panic during the evacuation), but it now seems pretty clear that they were bombs.
If it is terrorists – what, is that the best you can do? We live here, we don’t give a fuck about your stupid bombs, and we’ll survive this without changing the way we live our lives. Nor are we going to let you be used as spurious grounds for surrendering our freedom…
Or, in the words of an excellently British commuter featured on the BBC website, "people didn’t really know what was going on, they were just huffing and puffing and saying how annoying it was".
Incidentally, some wankers are already trying to blame this on G8 activists. Yeah, right – Aznartastic.
I’m supposed to go into town for Japanese food this lunchtime. Curse you, terrorists. My money’s on the French.
I had to walk into work from Victoria, and the excuse they initially gave was power problems – though it became increasingly clear as I passed Buckingham Palace into Green Park that something major was going on, as police cars (one crammed with sniffer dogs) and emergency paramedics were all over the place and the army were putting up metal barriers.
One thing that categorically wouldn’t have happened if we’d known then what we know now is the number of people trying to cram themselves onto moving Routemaster buses at Victoria in a desperate attempt to get into work…
(This was about 9.40 or thereabouts)
At least three explosions on the tube, plus a crash which may or may not have been due to an explosion. One explosion on a bus.
The tube is closed. Bus services in central London are closed. And it sounds like they’re closing the roads outside Wandsworth Town Hall.
Michael, what the line now is that the first some tube companies knew about it was a power surge, which was caused by the bombs. I’m a little sceptical, but it’s plausible.
The national grid spokespeople have denied the power surge, so, if there was one, it must have been internal.
Unless the first bomb took out the train’s driver, then, yeah, the first they knew about it might have been a power surge, but they will have been told about the explosion a matter of seconds later.
Also ‘allegedly’, there was a real power failure on the Northern Line a bit earlier on, which might have confused LU staff into thinking that was still the problem.
No-one thought there was anything remotely unusual – it’s absolutely par for the course to find Victoria tube station closed (often for platform congestion reasons), so most regular commuters just switch to the buses within seconds of spotting the grilles over the entrance.
hmm – just after we relected Ken – who’s willing to pay the increased congestion charge now?
There was an actual power failure on the Northern before 0630; there were boards up about it when I went in.
I nearly managed to be the last person to dodge onto the Central Line heading toward Liverpool Street at 0915 but was stopped by a policeman, bloody nanny state. Apparently there was an explosion down in the Tube at Moorgate which is near my office but I had long since buggered off home.
If Al Quaeda were really serious about disrupting things they would have poured some snow on the tracks.
Nicely sensitive d2
Tim, when the Northern Line reaches the south of Portugal perhaps I will be in the mood for being lectured on taste by locals there. At present it stops at Morden so I’m not. I’ve spent the last three hours walking home in the pissing rain and trying to get through to my family to tell them I’m alive. There are apparently about 200 people in London who have had a much worse time of things but what you’re seeing here is the "London Pride" that they used to sing about.
really small explosions though. Bus explosion didn’t even take out the whole bus, people in the next carriage on the underground unharmed (and many in the same carriage). This surely won’t cause physical damage to the infrastructure or many deaths, which doesn’t seem like Al Quaeda’s approach.
I assume the bus explosion was someone trying to reach Euston (the victoria line)?
Sure this the Al Quaeda’s style. Small bombs, a few deaths and total confusion and FEAR all over the struck city.
This is the way that yellow bellied,scum sucking COWARDS operate.
"FEAR all over the struck city."
?
What city would that be, Mr Wolf?
I had three lengthy walks today – from Victoria to Tottenham Court Road, from Tottenham Court Road to the South Bank, and then back to Victoria again – and consequently had plenty of chances to eavesdrop on what the Great British Public (who were out in vast numbers on the second and third trips given the lack of public transport) was saying…
…and pretty much without exception, it was along the lines of "well, it was bound to happen sooner or later, good job there were fewer casualties than expected, bloody hell I bet the trains’ll be crap tonight – do you know anyone with a spare sofa to crash on?", all delivered in tones that suggested it was the most normal thing in the world.
I joined in loads of conversations with complete strangers along these very lines – and, hand on heart, I didn’t spot one single person who looked or sounded even vaguely scared, or mildly perturbed. ‘Blitz spirit’ may be a hoary old cliché, but it was out in force today.