Luckily for me I got to work early this morning and so missed the chaos that followed all the so called 'power surges' on various tube lines including my usual Piccadilly line. Twenty minutes later and I could have been caught up in one of the tube trains involved in the explosion at King's Cross station which is on my daily commute.
Cue hysteria and speculation which mounted as news of other explosions came filtering through, initially described as electrical 'power surges', the news that a bus had exploded near Russell Square made up my mind that the explosions were a touch more sinister than electrical disruption. So the inevitable terrorist attack on London has happened. Well, at the moment the complete underground network is incapacitated and there are no buses running in central London - according to news reports, a terrorist outfit affiliated to Al-Qaeda is claiming responsibilty.
It's too early for any accurate official figures for the dead and injured, but given the timing of the attacks during the rush hour they could be quite high. The problem for many now (including myself) is being stranded in central London as the underground network has been shutdown and there are no buses operating around the centre of the city.
What is more frightening to me, is not that the attacks occurred (they were inevitable), but that the police and services which are on an anti-terror state of alert seem to have been caught totally unawares. Perhaps with focus on the G8 summit in Gleneagles and hence supposed heightened security, nobody thought an attack would come now. However, the police and emergency services are in full effect and the important thing now is not criticism, but support to help get the city of London fully functioning again.
BBC REPORT
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