BBC has an updating timeline here and eyewitness accounts here.
You have to love the British authorities - when confronted with a problem, they lie reflexively, and blame explosions on "power surges" - even when they occur on buses.
Update: Survivors' reports here.
Update 2: Yes, the early reports I was reading really were as described above, and they seemed more than a little reminiscent of BSE. But in retrospect, I've obviously made a bit of a dick of myself. Again.
18 comments:
That's not completely accurate - "power surges" were only blamed very early on (when the first reports of incidents on the Tube were coming out) and certainly before there was any report of the explosion on the bus at Tavistock Place. Reports now suggest Al Qaida.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 01:04:00 AM
UK Indymedia has a good update page http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/07/316983.html
including independent footage, photos etc
Posted by Kakariki : 7/08/2005 01:20:00 AM
Anon: Early BBC reports were as I describe above - blaming "power surges" for all explosions (including one bus). They've obviously dropped it now, though.
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 7/08/2005 01:26:00 AM
Accepted. A tube official has just explained at the Met news conference that that was because the explosions caused all the circuits to trip on the LU grid - leading them to believe (initally) it was a power surge. Bus and train services are starting to resume here again and they say the non-affected parts of the Tube will be running again tomorrow AM - sounds a little bullish though but full marks for trying to get people to go about their ordinary business. Anon (in London).
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 03:19:00 AM
I have extensive links on my blog
Posted by Swimming : 7/08/2005 07:53:00 AM
Piss off back to England Hobbo.
People like you aren't welcome in NZL.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 09:16:00 AM
That was an unworthy dig, I/S. I was watching those reports and it was quite clear that they were genuinely puzzled by the first one - thought it could have been a power surge - and then held off attributing causes until they knew better. Pull your head in. Anon's explanation about tripping the power grid was exactly what I was thinking at 11 last night.
Posted by stephen : 7/08/2005 09:18:00 AM
The benefit of hindsight makes you a savant I suppose.
And if they had of announced a bomb and it turned out to be a power surge, your dig would have become
"Authorities try to keep level of fear up" I suppose?
Posted by ZenTiger : 7/08/2005 09:28:00 AM
Personally I think the "Power Surges" were a white lie used to evacuate and shut down the Underground, in wich case the falsehood was justified. Continuing to hold onto that as the cause is not. I watched some of the footage last night and I approved of the London Police Comissioner standing at the line of "there were six explosions", "there is much confusion", and "the cause is unkown".
From what I saw the media was being _very_ naughty, using the word 'bomb' instead of 'explosion' and putting up various dramatic pundits who were outrightly stating it was Al-Qaeda and Terrorism and almost 'buy my book' material. It has still yet to be proven. The authorities were all firmly standing on the "it is too soon to tell" line. As they should be.
I also noted that the response from the emergency services was entirely professional, and public reaction was... British. Remember these people have been bombed before, this is not new to them. A big difference from the running and screaming from the Americans.
Personally I think it's one nutter who may be using the Al-Qaeda name and cause for his own aggrandisement.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 09:35:00 AM
I'm a maori Tibby - so I'm not pissing off anywhere ... having said the London was good for the 5 years I lived there.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 10:08:00 AM
This is for Hobbo.
(from http://www.mcb.org.uk/home.php)
British Muslims utterly condemn acts of terror
The Muslim Council of Britain utterly condemns today's indiscriminate acts of terror in London. These evil deeds makes victims of us all. It is our humanity that must bring us shoulder to shoulder to condemn, to oppose and to overcome those who would spread fear, hatred and death.
Our sympathies and our prayers are with the victims, their families and friends. We extend our support and gratitude to the emergency services, the Police and all the frontline services charged with our collective security.
"The evil people who planned and carried out these series of explosions in London this morning want to demoralise us as a nation and divide us as a people. All of us must unite in helping the Police to capture these murderers. Yesterday we celebrated as Londoners, euphoric that our great city had secured the Olympic Games. Today we stand aghast as we witness a series of brutal attacks upon our capital city. We were together in our celebration; we must remain together in our time of crisis,” said Sir Iqbal Sacranie, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain.
"We must and will be united in common determination that terror cannot succeed. It is now the duty of all us Britons to be vigilant and actively support efforts to bring those responsible to justice", he added.
The MCB, with the Bishop of London Rt Hon Richard Chartres, Chair of the CRE Trevor Phillips and other faith and civil society leaders have affirmed their mutual solidarity and support.
Posted by stephen : 7/08/2005 10:10:00 AM
Yep - good stuff that ... and the Tobacco companies used to say that smoking didn't do any harm to your health ....
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 10:21:00 AM
just goes to show, racism isn't the sole preserve of the mainstream.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 10:28:00 AM
Idiot -
Could you just be a little graceful and admit you allegation that the British Government "lied reflexively" was unfounded? God, I don't like Tony Blair and his Government any more than you do (though probably for different reasons) but give it a break...
Posted by Craig Ranapia : 7/08/2005 11:05:00 AM
While it was unfolding late last night, I thought'd go and see what some fool had posted on Indymedia.org.uk. Sure enough: two posts claiming it wasn't really terrorists, but an inside job by "the Establishment" or "MI6".
Am I allowed to say "Jesus wept" if I'm not a Christian?
Cheers,
RB
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 12:50:00 PM
RB - the Establishment conspiracy may be nonsensical, but are jo schmo's completely to blame for becoming so paranoid? The Establishment has been shown to be so duplicitous and/or opportunistic around 9/11 and the Spanish bombing, some will automatically associate a terror attack with machavellian purpose. It's a bit unreasonable to expect a willfully manipulated populace to think clearly around highly emotive events.
Posted by Anonymous : 7/08/2005 01:20:00 PM
For goodness' sake, does nobody remember BSE? The early response seemed more than a little familiar. But yes, in retrospect, it does seem I've made a bit of a dick of myself.
As for those wanting to use this to vilify British Muslims, they catch the train and the bus like everybody else, and were targets, just like everybody else. This is the work of extremists who use god as an excuse to kill for political purposes - and it is those extremists who should be found and punished, not those who had nothing whatsoever to do with this crime.
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 7/08/2005 01:56:00 PM
RB -
Go for it, because if Jesus isn't weeping at such idiocy I'm sure the two of us can pick up the slack.
Posted by Craig Ranapia : 7/08/2005 02:03:00 PM
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