'Walking wounded' after blast on Underground (Filed: 07/07/2005) All London underground services have been shut down after multiple blasts on the Metropolitan Line which have caused an unknown number of injuries. Several stations have been closed after the blasts between Liverpool Street and Aldgate which happened during rush hour. Explosions, have occurred at Aldgate East, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Moorgate, and Russell Square, Scotland Yard said. | | Tube staff turn commuters away |
There are "walking wounded" and paramedics have responded to one report of a person classed as "life at risk". "There are walking wounded, but that is as much as we know at the moment," said a British Transport Police spokesman. Union sources later said they had received reports of explosions on three buses in central London. One witness who was on a train at Aldgate told Sky News: "People were screaming, we could not get out. "There was so much dust, people were choking. I thought I was going to die of dust inhalation. "One woman told us to get down. We got out of one of the doors that had busted open. There were bodies and pieces of train everywhere. "There was a huge hole on the side of the carriage." Sky producer, Bob Mills who was at Russell Square, said an explosion "definitely happened above ground". He described the top of a bus being "completely destroyed". "There must be some considerable injuries," he added. It is not clear what the cause of the blasts were. BTP initially blamed power surges, but the National Grid, which supplies power to the Underground, later said there had been no problems with its system this morning which could have contributed to the incidents. Union officials said their sources had told them there had been at least one explosive device on the Underground. They said they had been given the information by at least one senior Tube manager. The incidents come a day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and on the day the G8 summit begins in Gleneagles. A Metronet spokesman said: "It looks as if we have a major incident. The whole system is being shut down." King's Cross, Liverpool Street and Aldgate stations have been cleared. Mainline train company First Great Western said its services into London's Paddington station were terminating at Reading in Berkshire because of the Underground crisis. More follows... Next story: Nail-biting tension of the vote ends in triumph and delight
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