Chaos, screaming in London

2005-07-21 17:24

Deborah Haynes

London - A string of blasts sent screaming passengers fleeing in panic and wounded at least one person on Thursday as police evacuated three London Underground stations and cordoned off a bus with shattered windows.

"We know we had four explosions or attempted explosions," London police chief Ian Blair told reporters.

"At the moment the casualties appear to be very low in the explosions. The bombs appear to be smaller than on the last occasion," he said.

"We don't know the implications for this yet and we are going to have to examine the scene very carefully," he told reporters.

Dozens of police and fire engines scrambled to the scenes, evacuating three Underground stations and cordoning off a wide area in eastern London around a double-decker bus in which the upper-floor windows were blown out.

Stations at Oval in southern London, Warren Street to the north and Shepherd's Bush to the west were evacuated.

Four London Underground train lines were shut down.

Panic and chaos

Back on the streets, train passengers who had fled reported panic and chaos below ground.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning," said Fosiane Mohellavi, 35, who was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking," she told Britain's domestic Press Association.

"We pulled into Warren Street and were evacuated. It was horrible," she said.

Police said they were not yet treating the alert on the same level as the July 7 attacks, in which 56 people were killed by four suspected al-Qaeda suicide bombers who blew up three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus.

Police were unable to confirm the cause of the alerts, which prompted the suspension of four subway lines.

Rucksack

Victoria Line passenger Ivan McCracken said he heard a traveller's rucksack had exploded on the Tube outside Warren Street station.

He told Sky News: "I was in a middle carriage and the train was not far short of Warren Street station when suddenly the door between my carriage and the next one burst open and dozens of people started rushing through.

Some were falling, there was mass panic.

"It was difficult to get the story from any of them what had happened but when I got to ground level there was an Italian young man comforting an Italian girl who told me he had seen what had happened.

"He said that a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack.

Exclamation

"The man then made an exclamation as if something had gone wrong. At that point everyone rushed from the carriage."

Another witness on the same line, Abena Adofo, 23, said people were running into her carriage.

"I could just smell smoke and I saw lots of people panicking. I was just trying to be calm and get out. The smell of smoke was coming from the end of the carriage," she told Adofo.

Stagecoach, which owns the number 26 bus involved in the incident, said the driver heard a bang at abour 13:30 (12:30 GMT).

The bus had left Waterloo and was in Shoreditch when the incident happened.

"The driver heard a bang which appeared to come from the upper deck. When he went upstairs to investigate, the windows on the upper deck were blown out.

"The bus is structurally intact and we don't have any reports of injuries," said a spokesperson.

- AFP