Failed terrorist attack on London Four tube stations in London, Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street, Oval and Oxford Circus have been evacuated after reports of incidents. Continuity Central is monitoring the situation and will provide more details if the situation develops. UPDATE 14.10: Many roads in central London have been closed and businesses told to keep staff inside buildings. LATEST TFL STATEMENT: UPDATE 14.30: The government's COBRA committee is about to convene. Tony Blair has cancelled appointments to attend. Unconfirmed reports that police are searching for a device in the Shepherds Bush area. UPDATE 14.50 The latest advice for businesses from the Met Police is for staff to stay where they are - not to attempt to travel home at this point. UPDATE 15.14 Speaking this afternoon outside New Scotland Yard, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has said: "We know that we have four explosions or attempts of explosions, and it is still unclear as to what has happened. There is certainly a scene at the Oval underground station. There is a scene at Warren Street underground station. There is a scene at Shepherd's Bush, which is on the underground but is actually above ground. There is a scene on a number 26 bus in Hackney. At the moment the casualty numbers appear to be very low in the explosions and the bombs appear to be smaller than on the last occasion but we don't know the implications of all this yet. We are going to have to examine the scene very carefully. "I have a couple of messages that I really need to give if I can. "The first is obviously part of the transport system is going to close down for a short while, while we work out what is happening. And it is very important that Londoners or people in London stay where they are. "The second is we will make a further announcement around what the travel implications are, but what we don't want is lots of people going to railway stations - the trains as far as I know are still running. But it is just stay where you are; go about your normal business. The plan is there. We have seen it happen before. It is rehearsed; the emergency services are getting control over a very confused scene. Clearly this is a very serious incident but what I am going to do now is go off to COBRA to meet with the Home Secretary and others and see where we go from here." UPDATE 15.20 UPDATE 15.48 Emergency services personnel have responded to reports of incidents at 4 sites across the capital. They are Oval, Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and Hackney Road, E2.As a precaution officers have been deployed at Warren Street London Underground Station in full protective equipment in order to carry out an examination of the scene. We have carried out an initial examination at Oval and early indications show that there is no trace of chemical agents. At this stage we have no reported casualties. We ask people to remain at work or home at this stage and await further information. Police are appealing to anyone who may have photos or mobile phone images from any of today's incident scenes, either at the time of the incident or shortly before, to send them online to: www.police.uk UPDATE 16.00 REFRESH THIS PAGE TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE READING THE VERY LATEST CONTENT Latest real-time Tube news at:
•Date: 21st July 2005 • Region: UK • Type:
Article •Topic: BC general |
