The day terror shook Britain: The 7/7 London attacks remembered, 20 years on

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3 days ago

Twenty years ago today, Britain experienced its deadliest terrorist attack in almost two decades - when bombers targeted London's transport network and took the lives of 52 people. Thousands, including people from the North East were caught up in the devastating explosions and their aftermath. Today, 20 years on, we remember those impacted and the stories of those who survived.
When rush hour commuters took to the London Underground and hopped on buses on Thursday July 7, 2005, there was no indication their journeys would be anything out of the ordinary. Unbeknown to them, a group of four Islamic suicide bombers sat among them and would soon detonate homemade bombs.
Within 50 seconds of each other at about 8.50am, three explosions rang out in the vicinity of Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations. Just under an hour later, at 9.47am, a fourth device exploded on a bus that had been diverted via Tavistock Square.
Initially, evacuated commuters from tube stations were told there was a "power surge", and to find alternative transport - but the reality and gravity of the situation became clear when police and emergency services swarmed and cordoned off parts of capital.
The Northern Echo's front page on July 8, 2005 - a day after the attacks.
"I will never know just how close I came to being on the bus that exploded in Tavistock Square yesterday morning," wrote Northern Echo reporter Liz Lamb, who was in London to cover a court case that day.
"What I know for certain is that I was riding on a London Transport double-decker on the same route only minutes before the explosion. At the time, I thought I was safe. My miscalculation could have been a fatal mistake.
"Even as I stepped from the train at King's Cross at 9am, two of the bombs that would cause so much misery had already detonated. The first explosion had torn a train apart at Liverpool Street station, the second had gone off at 8.56am in the King's Cross Underground station, below my feet.
Flowers left in Woburn Place, near the scene of the bus bomb blast in Tavistock Square. (Image: PA) "Blissfully unaware of what was happening, I made my way to the Underground, where I was greeted by harassed staff stopping passengers going to the platforms below."
She added: "I saw masses of people surging to the entrance, but they seemed to quickly disperse on the orders of London Underground staff, and I guessed they had migrated to nearby Euston.
"But the first signs things were terribly wrong came as I made my way along the street and police cars converged on the station. Officers jumped out and began cordoning off Euston Road, one of London's central routes."
Liz's solution to the chaos was to instead take a bus to the High Court - which was travelling on the same route as the double decker that would soon explode at Tavistock Square.
The number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, which was destroyed by a terrorist bomb. (Image: PA) She added: "Less than an hour later, I emerged from London's High Court to be greeted by the news that a bus that had travelled minutes behind me in Tavistock Square had exploded.
"I buckled at the news and the stark reality that I could so easily have been caught up in the devastation.
"Text messages and phone calls from loved ones ensued. "It wasn't your time, " they cried."
But it wasn't just Liz from our region who was caught up in the attacks. Chris Pearson, of Blackwell, Darlington arrived at King's Cross just after the first blast and saw the double-decker bus just minutes after it was targeted.
Walking wounded leaving Edgware Road tube station to be treated at the London Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road. (Image: EDMOND TERAKOPIAN) "People walked around with no real direction but everyone was quite calm, " said Mr Pearson, who took refuge in Russell Park.
Businessman Martin McTague from Heighington, was staying in a hotel near King's Cross and witnessed the "chaotic" scenes.
"Hundreds of people seemed to be heading for King's Cross, " he said. "No-one knew what was going on. But there was a strange sense of calm and no hysteria."
Both men returned to the region by plane.
Walking wounded leaving Edgware Road tube station to be treated at the London Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road. (Image: PA) Lisa French from Newcastle had an unthinkably close escape in the Tavistock Square attack. Deciding where to sit on that busy bus ended up was a life saving decision for the then-BT employee.
That day, when she could not get a train at Euston, she was directed to the No 30 bus and sat in the middle of the top deck, next to another female commuter.
She said: "I asked her if I could sit with her, and I sat down and people were just chatting about what they thought was going on. It was quite calm."
Then, as the double-decker approached Tavistock Square at 9.47am on Thursday the bomb exploded - ripping off the roof and splitting the side panels.
Mangled wreckage and bodies were strewn across the road after the bus exploded - and harrowing images taken of the decimated bus have become etched in the memory of millions.
"I just remember the light fading, which must have been the end of the flash," Lisa told ITV News.
"As I looked up and looked around, the roof of the bus had gone and you could feel things coming over the back of your head - dust and smoke.
"Everybody in front of us started to stand up and gaze around and everybody was just bewildered. People were screaming and shouting. There were sirens going off.
"It was chaos, but it was very still standing on the top of the bus and looking around. She saved my life, the girl I sat next to really, when I chose to sit with her."
Lisa, who had just arrived at King's Cross for a meeting in the capital, added: "It was almost like it had always been like that and you had just been put in the middle of it and you couldn't understand how it had got like that.
"It was very eerie and very surreal, and just bewildering. The smell was awful. I have never smelt anything like it - just burning metal, and it took hours and hours, the smell didn't really go away until Friday. It was horrible."
Lisa added that she thought people instinctively knew the explosion had been a bomb but did not realise it was on the bus. But she said that, unusually, people had been talking to strangers before the explosion because they had heard about the disruption to the Tube and were trying to work out what was going on.
(Image: PA) After the blast, Lisa and other shaken survivors climbed down by the stairwell and ran into a nearby office building, but then were told to move by police.
In reflection, she said: "I'll never worry about silly things again. It just makes you realise how lucky you are to be alive."
Fears also grew for a party from Longfield Road School in Darlington, now known as Longfield Academy, who were in the capital for a theatre visit.
But, a spokesman at Longfield Road School said the coach party had not been near the explosion areas and everyone headed home early as a precaution.
A group of 44 pupils from King John's RC School in Bishop Auckland also cut short a two day visit and returned to County Durham.
Walking wounded leaving Edgware Road tube station to be treated at the London Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road. (Image: EDMOND TERAKOPIAN) More than 770 people were injured and 52 people tragically died in the attacks.
In the weeks and months that followed, the four attackers were identified as Hasib Hussain, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Germaine Lindsay and Shehzad Tanweer.
Leeds man Hussain, 18, was behind the Tavistock Square attack that killed 13 people. Thirty-year-old Khan, of Dewsbury, detonated his device at Edgeware Road, killing six.
Behind the deadliest attack, at Russell Square, was 19-year-old Lindsay from London - who killed 26 people with his device that exploded just after it pulled out of King's Cross station. Tanweer detonated his device on a train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The 22-year-old, from Bradford, killed seven people.
All four men died when they detonated their devices.
Read more about the July 7 attacks:
BBC to air documentary series about response to July 7 London bombings
Family's anguish at 7/7 inquest evidence
Ten years after terror struck London
Two decades on, London and indeed the country has not forgotten the July 7 attacks.
A memorial service will be held in Hyde Park at 11.15am today where a memorial stands to those who lost their lives. It will be live streamed online.
Fifty-two steel plinths stand on the east side of the park - one for each victim.