Multiple explosions rock London
'Terrible injuries' reported in blasts
Thursday, July 7, 2005 Posted: 1040 GMT (1840 HKT)
Injured passengers are led away from Edgware Road Tube Station.RELATED
• Timeline: Blasts across London
• Eyewitnesses tell of subway horror
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Manage Alerts | What Is This? LONDON, England (CNN) -- Near simultaneous explosions rocked the London Underground network and at least one bus at the morning rush hour, police said, causing fatalities and prompting officials to shut down the entire underground transport network.
In the first report of casualties, City of London police told CNN there had been two fatalities at Aldgate east station.
The explosions came a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and as the G8 summit was getting under way in Scotland. Initial reports blamed a power surge, but officials were not ruling out a terrorist attack.
"There have been a number of dreadful incidents across London today," said Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Britain's top law enforcement officer. He said there were "terrible injuries."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said London had been hit by at least six blasts and there had been many casualties. He urged Londoners not to panic and said it was too early to say what caused the blasts.
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UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said he would make a statement on the London explosions from the G8 summit at 1100GMT, his spokesman said.
A White House spokesman said U.S. President George W. Bush was aware of the explosions and had been in briefings with Blair all morning.
The Tube blasts at the height of the rush hour on Thursday were initially blamed on a power surge.
But amid the chaos eyewitnesses reported that a packed double decker bus in the Russell Square area had been severely damaged in a blast.
There were media reports that a second bus had been damaged in Tavistock Square. Police told CNN they could not confirm that report.
Describing the Russell Square blast, eyewitness Belinda Seabrook told the UK Press Association she saw an explosion rip through the bus as it approached the Square.
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"I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double decker bus was in the air," she said.
She said the bus was travelling from Euston to Russell Square and had been "packed" with people turned away from Tube stops.
Travellers emerged from underground tunnels covered in blood and soot. Scotland Yard declared the emergency a "major incident."
Emergency services were called to London's Liverpool Street Station after reports of an explosion shortly before 9 a.m.
A short while later, London Underground said there had been "another incident at Edgware Road" station in north west London.