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I have giving a bit of detail on the London V Paris post, but here it is so far according to the bbc/itv

6 bombs have gone off (unconfirmed) 90 injured at Algate east

2 Buses around Russell square one has had its roof blown unconfirmed dead(6)

So far and arab newspaper has said that its believed Terrorists belonging to Al (spelling) Quardia have said they are behind it.

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[quote]Can someone link to the beeb please, I can't get to it and am hoping a link will get me 'in'.[/quote]

Here you are:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4659093.stm

The BBC site is obviously getting a lot of traffic, so don't be surprised if it is a bit slow or you fail to get it. BBC seems a bit less hysterical about it than ITN. Bad enough of course, but doesn't seem to be on anything like the scale of, say, Madrid. The aim seems to have been to cause disruption, it certainly appears to have been successful in that respect.

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I am in Westminster at the moment, having been in Regent Street earlier. As you can imagine it has been pandemonium, with police, ambulances and fire engines everywhere, no tube no buses and no taxis. All of us here don't know how we will get home, or if we will be here until tomorrow. There are various stories about mainline stations. It is also pelting with rain.

The latest news is of 150 seriously injured and at least two dead. Five bombs appear to have gone off in the underground and one in a bus (just where my daughter in law was due to be an hour later). There may have been a tube collision underground due to one of the bombs. If I hear any more I will post it.

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My husband works in London near to where the bombs have gone off so I,m relieved to discover he,s ok. But like Dick he won,t be able to get home tonight. I hope everyone else finds their friends/family to be ok and I,ll say a little prayer for those that don,t.

France is now on red alert because of this.

Janey

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I think this is very probably on a par with Madrid - there must be many fatalities as anyone who has travelled in London during a rush hour would realise.  The fact that no figures are being given out would imply that the situation is muddled, but I fear that the numbers will rise. 

Best wishes to everyone here on the forum, I hope that no one here will be personally affected by this cowardly act.

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2.30pm - now talk of 55 dead, hundreds wounded.

No tubes or buses but mainline stations seem to be open apart from Kings Cross, which is an emergency aid station. The QE2 centre is now the media centre and is surrounded by a police cordon.

The usual sad increase in the body count.

My feelings at the moment are that we roll with the blow, keep on with our lives and kill as many of the *******s as we can, whilst keeping open diplomatic channels for when they realise that barbarism like this won't get them one iota of what they want.

Listen to Ken Livingstone's comments in Singapore.

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It's been on Sky News all morning.

Nothing but praise, I think, is due to the emergency services, who seem to have done all that is humanly possible in the circumstances.   Chapeaux to them all.

I wouldn't be in Mr Blair's shoes for anything today (did I mishear, or did that funny Mr Bush call him President Blair? )

But did you notice the "Caption This" moment, when TB did his little speech, with Bush on one side and Chirac on the other?  Bush had a precious wide-eyed "where am I, has something happened" look on his face.   It was just after a claim that al-Quaida did it in retaliation for UK's involvement in Iraq, and Blair said that every civilised country was in danger.   And you could just see the speech-bubble appearing over smug Chirac's head saying "except France, bien sur". 

It's all dreadful.   And someone somewhere is watching it all with pleasure and a sense of satisfaction at a job well done. 

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It is a terrible day, especially after yesterday's joy.

I have to say that I was disgusted by a bit of the BBC's coverage earler - fairly close up footage clearly identifying a soot-covered young man being taken off an ambulance while undergoing chest compressions, his arms flopping over the side of the trolley, clearly in a very bad way. I thought there was some recent changes to the way TV companies broadcast these type of events live after the Beslan seige? It would have been terrible should his wife/mother/family have seen it.
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It's at times like this that I thank God we are now out of London.  Had we still been there my husband would have dropped me off less than ten minutes walk from two of the Underground bombs and about two minutes from the bus bomb.  I'm sure there's no way that we would have been able to meet up again due to road blocks etc. and clearly it's going to be almost impossible to get home tonight - trains are terminating as far out as Reading, Watford and Luton!!

A fear of something like this was EXACTLY why we brought our move to France forwards by about five years.  I've emailed a couple of friends who I know work close to Moorgate and Liverpool Street.  I'm sure they'll be OK because they get into work much earlier than these bombs exploded, but of course, as yet, no reply from any of them.

Just what do these maniacs hope to achieve by doing such things.  I think it only makes western governments even more resolute not to give in - but then give in to what?  What exactly do these people want, apart from the total destruction of the West.  And then where will they be???

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The emergency number is 0870 1566344

No underground services for the rest of the day - may be some bus services later.

The mobile phone network is heavily overloaded and there is a possibility that some transmitters have been switched off for security reasons so it may be difficult to get hold of people.

Just passing on this info in case any of you are frantically trying to contact friends or relatives.

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[quote]It's at times like this that I thank God we are now out of London. Had we still been there my husband would have dropped me off less than ten minutes walk from two of the Underground bombs and about ...[/quote]

Coco, I felt the same - Russell Square being the center of my universe in London when I worked there. Though I worked happily in central London through the later IRA period, post 9/11 the fear of something like this, or on the mainline railway back home, was one of the reason for wanting out.

I'm thankful that, bad as this is, the nightmare scenario of a chemical, biological or nuclear attack killing hundreds of thousands hasn't yet happened. I fear that is only a matter of time as I can't see what will stop them in the long term.

>What exactly do these people want, apart from the total destruction of the West. And then where will they be???

They want to die in combat for Islam, so they go straight to heaven with 72 virgins. So they don't care.

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I normally work near Liverpool Street, travelling from west London by tube. However I had a west of London meeting today, so count myself very fortunate. At my meeting I got phone call from a daughter whose college in Croydon closed for the day so I have had four hours of traffic jams to collect her, but can't keep from thinking how lucky we are.
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Christine - we have to roll with the blow, be prepared to fight back but also show by our behaviour that our beliefs are the right ones.

"This was not a terrorist attack against the mighty and the powerful; it is not aimed at presidents or prime ministers; it was aimed at ordinary working class Londoners, black and white, Muslim and Christians, Hindu and Jew, young and old, indiscriminate attempt at slaughter irrespective of any considerations, of age, of class, of religion, whatever, that isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it's just indiscriminate attempt at mass murder, and we know what the objective is, they seek to divide London. They seek to turn Londoners against each other and Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack. I wish to speak through you directly, to those who came to London to claim lives, nothing you do, how many of us you kill will stop that flight to our cities where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another, whatever you do, how many you kill, you will fail."

Ken Livingstone
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Thanks, John. Got home OK on one of the last trains out of Victoria before it was closed down again. Ended up well out of my way, but Julie came and picked me up. I don't know how many others made it home, but the streets between Westminster and Victoria were packed.
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6.30pm, just got through on the phone no problem to a friend in London, he's on his slow way home, so something's moving somewhere.   He went through those stations about 5 mins before it started to happen this morning.

What do these people hope to achieve?   Very much like virus-writers really, just some stupid feeling of power.  

While it could certainly have been much worse, they have ruined or ended the lives of many people, they have one of the world's major emergency services stretched to its limits, and they've disrupted the G8 summit.  Not bad going, really, for some sicko on a power trip.

It's going to take a lot of courage and strength for people not to want immediate "revenge" when their lives have been so brutally and senselessly - and deliberately - wrecked. 

Another unfortunate result may be that it gives our friend Mr Bush an excuse to forget about world poverty and AIDS, and focus all his efforts on "the fight against terrorism". 

And oh dear, this Muscat de Lunel is confusing my little brane, and I'm just glad I'm not a world leader, having to make these big decisions.   OTOH, maybe a good dose of Muscat to all 6 billion of us might solve a lot of problems.....  

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