Defiant mayor takes the tube

2005-07-11 12:00

London - London Mayor Ken Livingstone rode the Underground to work on Monday, four days after bomb attacks on the capital's transit system killed at least 49 people, urging people to "carry on" as normal.

"We are going to work. We carry on our lives. We don't let a small group of terrorists change the way we live," the mayor said as he boarded the Jubilee Line at Willesden Green station, northwest London, bound for City Hall.

Asked whether people should try to forget about Thursday's bomb attack, Livingstone - who often uses public transport - replied: "We carry on our lives. I don't think we ever stop thinking about last week."

A member of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, Livingstone is mayor of western Europe's biggest city, with a population of more than seven million.

One of the biggest manhunts in British police annals is under way to find the perpetrators of Thursday's bomb attacks on three Underground trains and a double-decker bus.

Public transit was running as close to normal as possible on Monday, with services restricted only on the lines stricken by the bombings.

- AFP