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RumoursThe 7 July 2005 London bombings (also called the 7/7 bombings) were a series of coordinated suicide bomb attacks on London's public transport system during the morning rush hour. Carried out by British Islamist extremists, the suicide bombings were motivated by Britain's involvement in the Iraq War and other conflicts.
At 850 a.m., three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later at 947 a.m. in Tavistock Square. The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four suicide bombers, injured 700, and caused disruption of the city's transport system (severely for the first day) and the country's mobile telecommunications infrastructure. The series of suicide-bomb explosions constituted the largest and deadliest terrorist attack on London's transit system in history.
It was originally thought that there had been six, rather than three, explosions on the Underground. The bus bombing brought the reported total to seven; however, this error was corrected later that day. This was because the blasts occurred on trains that were between stations, causing the wounded to emerge from both stations, giving the impression that there was an incident at each station. Police also revised the timings of the tube blasts initial reports had indicated that they occurred over a period of almost half an hour. This was due to initial confusion at London Underground, where the explosions were initially thought to be due to a power surge. One initial report, in the minutes after the explosions, involved a person under a train, while another concerned a derailment (both of which did actually occur, but only as a result of the explosions). A Code Amber Alert was declared at 0919, and London Underground began to shut down the network, bringing trains into stations and suspending all services.[3] The effects of the bombs are thought to have varied due to the differing characteristics of the tunnels.[4]
