London Tube stations evacuated

[U2@NYC]

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Emergency services personnel are attending three different Tube stations in central London following reports of "incidents," police said on Thursday.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson told CNN that Warren Street, Shepherds Bush and Oval stations had all been evacuated.

There are no reports of any casualties at this stage, sources told the UK Press Association.

London Underground confirmed that services on three lines -- Victoria, Northern and Hammermith and City -- were suspended following the incidents, according to PA.

No further information is yet available. Passengers at Warren Street reported seeing smoke but police could not confirm this.

One Victoria Line passenger said a traveler's rucksack exploded on the Tube outside Warren Street station.

Ivan McCracken 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 a man was carrying a rucksack and the rucksack suddenly exploded. It was a minor explosion but enough to blow open the rucksack.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Bombings can only do so much damage, fingers crossed that this nobody gets hurt or killed and that it isn't and that it isn't part of a campaign ~ for all we know now it is a hoax or a prank by some arseholes. The enemy within is still present.

 

[enajh2]

There's been an incident on a bus in Hackney Road too

Eyewitness on the phone is saying that someone was seen fleeing from one of the trains and that he had something that didn't "go off"

 

[Cassis]

fuck fuck fuck

 

[Chizip]

3 trainstations and 1 bus....

same as last time

 

[bammo2]

apparantly it was detonators only - no explosives

 

[bammo2]

from http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4703777.stm

Dummy explosions using detonators only have sparked the evacuation of three Tube stations and the closure of three lines, a BBC correspondent has said.
Police cordoned off large areas around Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd's Bush Tube stations.

Emergency services also attended an incident on a route 26 bus in Hackney Road in Bethnal Green.

Police in London say they are not treating the incidents on the underground as "a major incident yet".

The whole of the Northern Line has been suspended, along with the Victoria Line and the Hammersmith and City.

An eyewitness at Oval station said there had been a small bang, and a man had then run off when the Tube reached the station.



Police have set up cordons round the stations

Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street.

"I was in the carriage and we smelt smoke - it was like something was burning. "Everyone was panicked and people were screaming. We had to pull the alarm. I am still shaking."

But a BBC reporter outside Warren Street station said there was no sign of smoke outside.

 

[enajh2]

Well the bus has had some of it's windows blown out so I don't know what to make of that, as to whether you could achieve that without explosives

One person has been reported as having received an injury at Warren Street

 

[enajh2]

 

[one4u2]

 

[Irvine511]

let's hope for the best.

just awful.

 

[nbcrusader]

Fear is there biggest weapon....

Prayers for the people of London.

 

[enajh2]

The authorities are now sealing off all of Whitehall...and Tony Blair is chairing an emergency Cobra meeting at No. 10 now

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

 

[enajh2]

Whitehall has now reopened!

 

[verte76]

This is horrible. Idiots.

 

[enajh2]

It looks like the person seen running off was injured and is now at University College Hospital...hence why this is cordoned off.

Three armed police officers with flack jackets and sub-machine guns were seen by a Reuters news reporter running into the emergency area at UCL before the cordon was setup

 

[pax]

I hope everything is all right...sounds so lame, but there's nothing else to say, I guess.

 

[U2Girl1978]

Up to 4 bombs explode on London transit system
By Tim Castle and Matt Bigg, Reuters | July 21, 2005

LONDON --Up to four bombs hit London's transport system on Thursday, exactly two weeks after more than 50 people were killed in blasts on underground railway trains and a bus.

London police chief Ian Blair said there were four explosions or attempted explosions in what he called "a very serious incident".

He said casuatlies were light and the bombs appeared to be smaller than the ones that wreaked deadly havoc two weeks ago.

Witnesses said they had seen what could have been a would-be bomber running away after dropping a rucksack on one of the trains.

"We all got off on the platform and the guy just ran and started running up the escalator," one witness who gave her name as Andrea told the BBC.

 

[enajh2]

Tony Blair to make a statement from Downing Street any minute now

You can watch it here...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/...s=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1&bbram=1&nol_storyid=4703931

 

[U2Girl1978]

Small blasts hit London transport

Thursday, July 21, 2005; Posted: 10:21 a.m. EDT (14:21 GMT)

Police seal off roads around Oval station in south London.

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Four "attempts at explosions" have been reported on three London Underground stations and a bus, two weeks after the July 7 terror attacks, the UK capital's police chief has said.

Scotland Yard also confirmed they were looking into an "incident" at University College Hospital, where armed officers have been deployed. Witnesses reported policemen with flak jackets entered the hospital along with dogs.

The hospital is near Warren Street station, where police said one of three small devices detonated. The other blasts were reported at Oval and Shepherd's Bush stations.

Thursday's blasts came two weeks to the day since bombs on three Tube trains on a bus killed 52 people and four of the bombers.

A bus driver reported a "bang" from the top of his double-decker at Hackney Road and Columbia Road in East London, according to the bus company's spokesman.

A spokesman for the company said the windows of the bus were blown out, although this was denied by a police officer at the scene.

"I have seen the bus. There were no windows blown out," the officer told Reuters.

There were no injuries aboard the 26 bus, which travels from Waterloo to Hackney, the driver said.

Transport Police said there was one injury when a device exploded on an underground train near the Warren Street station. There are no other reports of casualties.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said: "We know that we've had four explosions or attempts at explosions. It is still pretty unclear as to what's happened."

"At the moment, the casualty numbers appear to be very low in the explosions. The bombs appear to be smaller than the last occasion," he added.

Blair urged Londoners to "stay where you are and go about your normal business" for the time being.

The area around Warren Street station has been sealed off and a bomb squad is on the scene to check for any other explosive devices.

ITN reported authorities were pushing people further back from Warren Street station and witnesses reported seeing men in chemical suits going down in station.

Scotland Yard said officers "in full protective equipment" were deployed to that central London station "as a precaution."

All three stations were evacuated and four Tube lines -- Hammersmith & City, Victoria, Northern and Bakerloo -- were closed, according to a spokesperson for Transport for London.

Ambulances were called to Oval station at 12:38 p.m. (7:38 a.m. ET). At 12:45 p.m., a call came in from Warren Street.

The ambulance service had no details on the Shepherd's Bush station incident.

Bryce Elder, a witness near the Shepherd's Bush station, said there was a heavy police presence but "no real sense of panic."

Police helicopters flew overhead and areas near Shepherd's Bush station were evacuated. Elder said the station was not very busy.

CNN London producer Katie Turner reported a heavy police presence near the Oval station, including about 30 police vehicles. Roads about 500 meters from the station have been blocked off to vehicular traffic, she said.

A woman who was on the train at the Oval station when the incident happened said she didn't hear a bang, but saw people pushing themselves into her carriage.

She said there was a general mood of panic. The train, which was moving when incident happened, was not packed with people, she said.

Other people said they smelled sour smoke.

An explosives expert contacted by CNN said the "sour smell" reported by people coming out of the underground would likely have come from two sources: the rucksack catching fire; and the explosives themselves catching fire after the detonator failed to explode them. The explosives could actually burn and give a toxic smell.

Prime Minister Tony Blair postponed a planned photocall with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, on an official visit to Britain and planned to address the nation later Thursday.

The White House said President George W. Bush has been informed of the incidents.

 

[enajh2]

A man has been arrested and handcuffed in Whitehall and is being led down the street and into a government building by armed officers! You can view the scene using the link in my previous post.

Not far from the gates to Downing Street near the Ministry of Defence building

[Edit]

The news correspondents in Downing Street have just been asked to stop filming outside the building as a black van and a load more police officers appeared!

Yet there's pictures of the other correspondents sat inside No. 10 waiting for the press conference, so they're clearly not evacuating it. Bizarre!

 

[zwervers2]

very sad....take care in London!!!

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

 

[enajh2]

 

[enajh2]

 

[financeguy]

Blair should resign, his policy of being Bushco's lapdog has clearly exposed the the British people to great danger.

 

[karls77]

Sounds like a bunch of fucking amateurs to me.......

 

[karls77]

From the BBC:

"There were reports a memo had been circulated to staff to look out for a 6ft 2in black or Asian man with wires sticking out of his top."

Now was this a serious attack that didn't go to plan or were these idiots just out to scare people??

 

[Halifax]

"There's many losts, but tell me who has won?"