London July 07. 2005 England

Edware Road.
On Thursday 7 July 2005, a series of four bomb explosions struck London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. At 08:50, three bombs exploded within one minute on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus at 09:47 in Tavistock Square. All four incidents are believed to have been suicide bombings. Fifty-two people are confirmed dead, with 700 injured. The bombings also led to a severe, daylong disruption of the city's transport and telecoms infrastructure. The bombings are thought to have been planned by Islamist terrorist organizations based in the United Kingdom, possibly affiliated with al-Qaeda. The bombings came while the UK hosted the first full day of the 31st G8 summt at Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, a day after London was chosen to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, and two days after the trial of radical cleric Abu Hamza had started in London. At around 12:10 on 7 July, BBC News reported that a website known to be operated by associates of al-Qaeda had been located with a 200-word statement claiming responsibility for the attacks. The newsmagazine Der Spiegel in Germany and BBC Monitoring both reported that a group named "Secret Organisation — al-Qaeda in Europe" had posted an announcement claiming responsibility on the al-Qal3ah ("The Castle") Internet forum. The announcement claims the attacks are a response due to the British involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the U.S invasion of Afghanistan. The letter also warned other governments involved in Iraq, mentioning specifically Denmark and Italy, to withdraw troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. A Saudi commentator in London noted that the statement was grammatically poor, and that a Qur'anic quotation was incorrect. This has been disputed. Edgware Road. The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a Circle line sub-surface underground train number 216 westbound at Edgware Road. The bomb exploded about eight minutes after the train left Kings Cross station. The train had just left platform 4 at Edgware Road and was heading for Paddington. There were several other trains near the explosion. An eastbound Circle Line train (arriving at platform 3 at Edgware Road from Paddington) was passing the other train at the time of the explosion and was damaged. There were also reports of damage to a wall which collapsed. There were two other trains at Edgware Road, an unidentified train on platform 2, and an eastbound Hammersmith and City Line train that had just arrived at platform1. Photographed 08 July 2005.

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