Somethings happened at one of London's main tube/train stations...

[abbeycat]

Hi guys, I have finally crossed everyone off my list as safe and well, apart from shock, except a welsh aunt, but the chances of her being in london are slim, and even slimmer of being hurt.. she's hard to contact at the best of times, she has a very busy life, so I am going to take it as no news equals good news.
She is a nun so is probably up to her neck counselling and comforting right now.

Just thought i'd update

 

[rosiemac]

Abbey so pleased everyones accounted for!

And i'm sure your right about your aunt

 

[gilly]

Good! The bomber who blew up the London bus was also killed in the blast.

BBC News

I have been reading the most amazing online diary of a women caught up in one of the tube bombs, a truly inspirational survivor. I just wanted to share it with you

I had a slight nervy attack last night before I left work but I feel okay again now. Reading this has made me realise that there will be ppl with worse feelings than I have, so I should be grateful.

Getting back on the tube

 

[rosiemac]

I'll have a good read of that when i get home, but as each day passes Gilly you will feel more confident in getting on the tube

And as for the bomber, well i hope he's burning in hell right now because thats the best place for him!

Oh good grief Yorkshire!. It's getting closer to me!!

 

[gilly]

Originally Posted by rosiemac

Oh good grief Yorkshire!. It's getting closer to me!!

I don't think that anywhere is safe...

 

[catsknowme]

You UK'ers are sooooo Brave!

I admire the calm, collect courage. Your people are a shining example of how to react to the senseless terrorism.

 

[rosiemac]

Originally Posted by catsknowme

You UK'ers are sooooo Brave!

I admire the calm, collect courage. Your people are a shining example of how to react to the senseless terrorism.

I think it's a case of having to be, otherwise they've won then?!

I think not!!!

 

[flisssweetpea]

Susan - it touches us all doesn't it - we're not 20 miles from Birmingham. Still, it touches some more than others. Gilly - you don't know how proud I am of you and your fellow travellers, determined to carry on no matter what. I read the story of Rachel on the BBC website - what tremendous courage it must have taken for her to get this far.

I hope the rest of the summer for you is filled with nothing more than sunny days and picnics in the park

 

[gilly]

Originally Posted by flisssweetpea

Gilly - you don't know how proud I am of you and your fellow travellers, determined to carry on no matter what. I read the story of Rachel on the BBC website - what tremendous courage it must have taken for her to get this far.

I hope the rest of the summer for you is filled with nothing more than sunny days and picnics in the park

Thanks again

I think reading Rachel's story is helping me and many others that we are not alone with our feelings.

Some significant developments have been made today:

I have been keeping up to date with the news on Sky and BBC News 24. Now the police think that each bomber died on the trains and bus. They have not yet said "Suicide Bombers" but that's what everyone is thinking. They have the identity of 3 of the bombers recovered from the scenes but the 4th person, they are not too sure about. They also have CCTV footage of the four men arriving at Kings Cross at about 8.30am on Thursday (the day of the attacks).

Some major breakthroughs have been made outside of London as well - in Leeds and Luton where houses were searched and explosive material recovered. The police have done a terrific job today as suddenly there is so much more info about these terrorists. It is also reported that a family member of one of the bombers has been arrested.

The full story is here:

News Story

 

[jcat]

Originally Posted by Gilly

Thanks again

I think reading Rachel's story is helping me and many others that we are not alone with our feelings.

Some significant developments have been made today:

I have been keeping up to date with the news on Sky and BBC News 24. Now the police think that each bomber died on the trains and bus. They have not yet said "Suicide Bombers" but that's what everyone is thinking. They have the identity of 3 of the bombers recovered from the scenes but the 4th person, they are not too sure about. They also have CCTV footage of the four men arriving at Kings Cross at about 8.30am on Thursday (the day of the attacks).

Some major breakthroughs have been made outside of London as well - in Leeds and Luton where houses were searched and explosive material recovered. The police have done a terrific job today as suddenly there is so much more info about these terrorists. It is also reported that a family member of one of the bombers has been arrested.

The full story is here:

News Story

That has made all the network news here, too. It's so sad - now that some of the victims have been identified, it's so easy to recall the interviews with their loved ones while they were frantically searching for news of their fates.
In the end, such attacks are, IMO, going to prove not only irrational, but also counterproductive. They're so despicable that no reasonable person is going to be convinced of the "worthiness" of the cause, whatever it's supposed to be. I've seen a joke about the so-called martyrs having trouble with our (American) "Southern drawl" - it's not "virgins" they'll be rewarded with, but "Virginians", e.g., Thomas Jefferson, in the afterlife. Tough luck, idiots.

 

[Gaven Kent]

I found this thread while searching for anything about the Manchester bomb attack. I remember this day so clearly. The day before London celebrated winning the 2012 Ilympic bid. My dad said to me that this would lead to a terror attack. He was due to go into Central London the next day and cancelled his plans. The next morning it happened. The phone networks went down and all public transport stopped. I couldn't contact anybody. I walked home from work as no buses worked and halfway home saw my dad driving and looking for me. A week later we heard that a family friend had been killed. The worst part was that her funeral would be delayed for months while they worked out which were her body parts. Two years later there was more tragedy when it was announced that our friend had been buried with another persons body parts. That day stays with me because it showed how vulnerable we are. I grew up in London in the 1980s where terrorist threats were common. The enemy was the IRA and I had firsthand experience with their bombings. The army barracks near my house was bombed and the windows at home shattered. There were scared every Christmas about going shopping in London. I was an army cadet in a unit attached to a territorial army battalion. It was the Parachute Regiment. I was a member from 1988-96, 11-19 years old. We weren't allowed to travel to our weekly parade in uniform as a young cadet had been blinded when he picked up a booby trapped torch outside his cadet barracks. The IRA were targeting any regular or reserve soldiers and sadly a cadet got injured instead. In 1992 when u was sixteen the unit was on the way home from a weekend battle camp near Aldershot. The coach was an army coach but the driver a civilian. Our commanding officer wasn't happy as the driver had got lost constantly. A map was produced and the route dictated to the driver. He wouldn't listen. The coach driver lost his temper and insisted he knew the way but within minutes we ended up in Kilburn which has a big Irish Community. Even the youngest cadet knew that it wasn't smart to be in army uniform, in an army coach driving through the staunchly pro Republican Irish community. To make matters worse it was St Patrick's day and the streets were packed. We were all in uniform in the coach with our berets and Parachute Regiment cap badges visible. Our regiment had a controversial history in Northern Ireland through its involvement in the shooting of unarmed civilians and was a target for any form of revenge. Within seconds people in the street noticed who we were. First cans and rubbish were thrown at the coach and we were stuck in traffic. The missiles got bigger and heavier and there more of them. People swamped the coach on all sides banging on the Windows and trying to get in. The driver has kicked the doors and we were safe for a while. The traffic was crawling. This was pre mobile phone so no help could be summoned. I gave up counting the people outside after reaching 70. There were ten adult officers and the rest of us were ages from 11-19. It was obvious we were army cadets. The shouting outside was focused on the hatred of the British Army and our regiment. Chants about Bloody Sunday were taken up by the crowd. The coach windows were smashed but still in place and we had pulled the curtains to protect us from flying glass. We were terrified that petrol bombs would come next or that the mob would get inside. The traffic was unbelievable in that we weren't moving. The vehicles in front and behind acted as if nothing was going on and people in the street carried on their shopping or their St Patrick's Fay celebrations. Shopkeepers paid no attention. We were on a long High Road with no entry or dead end streets either side and nowhere for a coach to turn around. Our commanding officer who had been a Parachute Regiment Major and spent 20 years in the regiment gathered the other officers and the NCO cadets. That meant anyone over 16 who was either a Corporal or a Sargeant. He calmly galled us through what was happening and what our options were. The noise outside would subside while they got more alcohol or grew tired but would soon start again when new people joined and word spread. The Major said that we had to stay on the coach as there was nowhere to go. He hoped that at least one Good Samaritan would call the police and very seriously said that we were not to split up and at all costs were to stick together. We had been on a three day battle camp where we had a tactical exercise that kept us in the field fighting another cadet unit. We had all of our equipment and our rifles were stowed in the overhead luggage compartments. I heard the Major speak to another officer about our weapons and that they could be brought out as a last resort as a show of force. We had no live ammunition only the minimal blank rounds that we used on exercise. We had gone with 10000 rounds and had about 50 left. Personally I had fired thousands over the exercise as my weapon was a Light Machine Gun type creation that the army called the Light Support Weapon. It was almost identical to the standard army rifle except it had a longer barrel and a bipod. If was great as a marksman/sharpshooter weapon where the range of contact was shorter and made a sniper rifle a big if an overkill. As a fire support weapon it wasn't the best example. It was fed with 30 round magazines that usually only had 28 as the springs weren't up to it. The barrel couldn't be changed so continuous automatic fire was impossible and short, controlled bursts were all that could be done. It was also plagued with design problems that made taking it into the field a challenge. If it played up with army cadets firing blanks what would it be like in a real war with regular soldiers? In the 1991 Gulf War if had proved to be a difficult weapon to keep functioning in the desert environment. Most 16 year old would do anything to have a weapon like this for a few days and would ignore its shortcomings. It's testament to the high level of training we were given by regular soldiers that we could identify and understand the pros and cons of a weapon and visualise the problems that this could cause in combat. It was only a year before that the Cold War had shown visible signs of ending and that the USSR and its Eastern European satellite states has reverted to non communist governments. Most British Military personnel thought that any war fought in the 1980s would be in mainland Europe and involve fighting the entire Eastern Bloc on the plains of central Germany. Either before or during this fighting there would be mass use of thermonuclear weapons against the USA and all its allies and strategic locations. There would be tactical battlefield nuclear strikes followed by the rapid advance of endless streams of Soviet Tank Divisions and Mobile Infantry. Senior tacticians of the time estimated that the Sibiets could have been held up for a maximum of four days before NATO capitulated. There would be serious casualties on all sides and the civilian death toll would be unimaginable as cities were nuked and all infrastructure and military were destroyed. There wouldn't be much left