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Tuesday 07 July 2015 6:09 am

7/7 London bombings 10th anniversary: Timeline of the day that changed the capital

By: Catherine Neilan

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It’s been 10 years since London was rocked by a series of bombs that brought the capital’s Tube network and roads to a standstill. 
 
On that day confusion reigned: at first it was reported that there had been a power surge. At one point as many as six explosions were thought to have gone off.
 
In total 52 people died on that day, and hundreds more were left with injuries – some of which were life-changing. 
 
Here we retrace the day that changed the capital – and the weeks that followed. 


7th July
7:15am

Four young British men carrying large rucksacks enter Luton train station.

7:25am

The men – later named as Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18 and 19-year-old Germaine Lindsa – join the commuter train to Kings Cross.

8:30am

CCTV images show the men hugging before splitting off in different directions.

8:49am

An incident between Liverpool Street and Aldgate Tube stations – either an explosion or a collision between trains – is reported. Both stations report the matter,
leading to confusion over the number of incidents.

8:50am

Seconds later a bomb goes off on the Tube between King’s Cross and Russell Square. Eyewitnesses report explosion appeared to come from outside the train.

8:50am

Almost instantaneously there is an explosion on a train at Edgware Road Tube station.

8:52am

London Underground reports power surges on the network.

8:55am

Hussain is seen on Euston Road outside Kings Cross station, on his phone. He goes back to the station, where he buys a battery
from WH Smiths and then goes into the McDonald’s over the road.

9:15am

Emergency services confirm they have been called to Liverpool Street after reports of an explosion, thought to be caused by the power failure.
London Underground begins shutting down the network and evacuating around 200,000 passengers from more than 500 trains after receiving reports of
a train derailment at Edgware Road, a person under a train at Liverpool Street and walking wounded leaving stations.

9:19am

Hussain gets on the number 91 bus from King’s Cross to Euston station, where he switches to the number 30 travelling east from Marble Arch.

9:29am

Metropolitan Police confirm they are dealing with a major incident in London, but say it’s too early to know what has happened.

9:30am

A Cobra meeting is called

9:33am

Reports start to surface of an incident at Edgware Road Tube station

9:46am

British Transport Police announces there have been explosions at King’s Cross, Old Street, Moorgate, and Russell Square.

9:47am

The number 30 bus explodes at Upper Woburn Place/Tavistock Square.

09:49am

The entire London Underground system is shut down.

10:00am

National Grid announces there had been no problem with power surges.

10:40am

Reports of fatalities emerge. All hospitals are put on major-incident alert.

10:53am

Home secretary Charles Clarke says “dreadful incidents” have caused “terrible injuries”.

11:08am

Bus services suspended across central London.

11:10am

Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair says police believe there have been six explosions in what is believed to have been a coordinated terror attack.
He appeals for calm, asks people not to travel to London or make unnecessary calls to emergency services.

11:25am

Police spokesman confirms there have been at least two fatalities.

12:05pm

Prime Minister Tony Blair speaks from G8 summit in Gleneagles, calling the attacks a coordinated series of “barbaric” terrorist attacks.
“There have been people who have died and people seriously injured,” he says.

12:10pm

A website linked to al-Qaeda carries a statement saying it has carried out a “blessed raid” in London “in retaliation for the massacres Britain
is committing in Iraq and Afghanistan”.

12:55pm

Clarke tells MPs four explosions have been confirmed, although it is still not clear who carried out the attacks.

1:13pm

Mayor Ken Livingstone praises Londoners for responding “calmly and courageously” to the “cowardly terrorist attacks”.

3:25pm

At least 33 people are confirmed dead, while some of the injured have lost limbs.

4:35pm

The Union Jack flying over Buckingham Palace is lowered to half-mast at the Queen’s request.

5:30pm

Blair, who has flown back to London to attend an emergency meeting in Downing Street, urges the public not to “be terrorised”.

6:13pm

Deputy Assistant Police Commissioner Brian Paddick confirms 37 fatalities and seven hundred injuries, with roughly three hundred of those
being transported by ambulance to London hospitals.

7:40pm

Foreign secretary Jack Straw says attack appears to have been carried out by Al Qaeda.

9:40pm

The Metropolitan Police announces that a person injured in one of the blasts has since died in hospital care.

10:19pm

Hussain’s family reports him missing

8th July
11:00am

Metropolitan Police holds a press conference, confirming four blast sites – three on the underground and one on the bus – not six as briefly thought.
Death toll has risen overnight to 50.

3:00pm

Queen Elizabeth visits victims of the attacks at the Royal London Hospital, and speaks out against terrorism.

3:30pm

Police commissioner Ian Blair and Ken Livingstone hold press conference, confirming 13 of those killed were caught in the Tavistock Square bomb.

9th July
12:30pm

Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Brian Paddick, British Transport Police deputy chief constable Andy Trotter and London Underground
managing director Tim O’Toole give a joint press conference, confirming that the three Tube explosions took place almost simultaneously.

7:30pm

Police evacuate Birmingham city centre after a security alert.

12th July
6:30am

Armed police and army bomb disposal experts conduct three raids in the Beeston and Holbeck areas of Leeds and two in nearby Dewsbury, in West Yorkshire.
The Metropolitan Police lead this operation, working in conjunction with West Yorkshire Police. By this point three suspects have been identified from
CCTV footage, a missing person’s report and documents found in the debris at each bomb site.

11:30am

Up to 600 residents are evacuated from the area of a sixth raid, in the Burley area of Leeds. Residents are unable to return to their homes for two days
following the confirmation that explosives have been found at the site.

1:20pm

A controlled explosion is carried out at the site of the raid in Burley. Luton Railway Station is closed as police investigate a car parked there and
believed to be associated with the suspects caught on CCTV cameras. After a series of controlled explosions the car is taken away for further examination.

13th July

A raid by police and bomb disposal experts takes place at a house in Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, after the identification of a fourth suspect.

21 July
12:26pm

Small explosions occur at Shepherd’s Bush Tube station (Hammersmith and City line), Warren Street and Oval.

1:30pm

A backpack is reported as exploding in east London on the Number 26 bus travelling from Waterloo to Hackney Wick.

2:30pm

University College Hospital is cordoned off by police, amid fears the bomber from the Warren Street Tube station ran into the building.

4:00pm

Sir Ian Blair says the situation is “firmly under control”.

22 July
10:00am

Jean Charles de Menezes is shot dead by plain clothes police at Stockwell tube station.

27 July
4:30am

Yasin Hassan Omar, suspected of the failed attack at Warren Street on 21 July 2005, along with three other men, is arrested in Heybarnes Road,
Birmingham. He was carrying a rucksack when he was arrested and, after resisting arrest, was hit with a Taser stun gun.
Later he is taken to London for questioning by the Police.

29 July
11:30am

Two more suspects are arrested in London. Later that same day, Hussain Osman, the fourth suspect, is arrested in Rome.

3 August

Piccadilly Line returns to service.

 

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