INITIAL REPORTS: ALDGATE
Despite all the early reports referring to Liverpool Street this event is now referred to as Aldgate. In many early reports, Aldgate East was given as the site for this explosion.
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| At approximately 09:17 on the morning of July 7th 2005, 27 minutes after we are later told simultaneous explosions occurred on the underground, the first news reports were of an explosion at Liverpool Street station1. What caused this delay in alerting the public to such a serious event? |
According to the BBC
2:
0849 An incident on the Metropolitan Line between Liverpool Street and Aldgate is reported to British Transport Police.
0915 Press Association reports emergency services called to London's Liverpool Street Station after reports of an explosion.
0924 British Transport Police say the incident was possibly caused by a collision between two trains, a power cut or a power cable exploding. Police report "walking wounded".
0933 Passengers are told that all London Underground services are being suspended because of a power fault across the network, PA reports.
0940 British Transport Police say power surge incidents have occurred on the Underground at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Old Street and Russell Square stations.
1J7 Incident Analysis: Liverpool Street/Aldgate/Aldgate East – The Breaking Story - http://www.julyseventh.co.uk/7-7-liverpool...l#breakingstory
2BBC NEWS | UK | London blasts: At a glance - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4659331.stm PAGE 1 OF 19| QUOTE |
| The direction of the train was given in all official reports as heading towards Liverpool Street Station. Why was this information given, why was it changed and how much confusion did this cause relatives and friends of the deceased who were searching for loved ones? |
Transport for London3 stated:
Latest information confirms that there were four incidents on London's transport network this morning, three on London Underground and one on London Buses.
At 09:46, the London Underground was suspended and all stations commenced evacuation following incidents at:
•Aldgate station heading towards Liverpool Street station on the Hammersmith & City line;
DAC Andy Hayman in a press conference 8th July:
In relation to the tube train in Aldgate travelling toward Liverpool Street, the explosion occurred in a carriage approximately 100 yards into the tunnel4.
MPS press statement 7th July5:
At 08.51 on 7 July at Liverpool Street Station there was a confirmed explosion in a carriage 100 yards into the (Liverpool Street-bound station) tunnel.
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| The official version of events at Liverpool Street / Aldgate describe the explosion as being in the the second carriage of Circle Line train 2046. Yet the MPS claimed in their one week anniversary recap that the explosion occurred in the third carriage. How was this error made? |
The explosions were on:
•Circle Line train travelling from Liverpool Street to Aldgate station. The device was in the
third carriage of a train approx. 100 yards into the tunnel.
3Press Centre travel updates - 07 July 2005 | Transport for London - http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/news...chive/3969.aspx
4CNN.com – Transcripts, Police Give Update on London Terror Attacks; London Terror; Interview With Rudy Giuliani - http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/08/se.01.html
5Metropolitan Police Service - Response to terrorist attack - http://www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_at...s/response3.htm
6Page 5 of the Home Office's Report of the Official Account of the Bombings In London on 7th July 2005, http://www.official-documents.gov.uk/docum...0/1087/1087.asp PAGE 2 OF 19DAC Andy Hayman claimed in a press conference on the 8th July
7:
The device was in the
third carriage and unfortunately we can't be any more specific than that.
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| Why were survivors evacuated via Aldgate, and forced to walk past the wreckage, rather than via Liverpool Street? |
The time of the explosion was originally given as 8.51
8 until it changed to 'within 50 seconds of each other at 8.50' (announced by the then PM, Tony Blair, to Parliament on 11th July
9). The only image to have been released purporting to be of an explosion on a train is CCTV footage from Liverpool Street Station. Yet this has a time stamp of 07:46:58:
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| What is the reason for the time stamp showing 1hr and 3 minutes before the official time of this explosion? |
Even allowing for British Summer Time, a Trackernet image released by Tim O'Toole
10, which he claims shows the position of the trains at the exact moment of the explosion and 'allows us to confirm the timings', also appears to be inaccurate and doesn't support the 'within 50 seconds of 8.50' timing (noticeably the Trackernet image purporting to be at the time of the explosions is absent of any time stamp):
7CNN.com – Transcripts, Police Give Update on London Terror Attacks; London Terror; Interview With Rudy Giuliani - http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/08/se.01.html
8Metropolitan Police Service - Response to terrorist attack - http://www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_at...s/response3.htm
9House of Commons Hansard Debates for 11 Jul 2005 (pt 6) - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/c...50711-06_spmin1
10CNN.com – Transcripts, Hurricane Dennis Reaches Category Two Status; London Begins Invesitgation and Recovery - http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0507/09/smn.01.html PAGE 3 OF 19
The same Trackernet image, annotated with J7 compiled research data, incorporates the data from a copy of the Working Time Table, obtained by J7 via a FOI request, and strongly suggests that the time of this image is at least 4 minutes before the alleged time of the blast, and that the only train in its correct position at 8.49 is the Hammersmith & City line train 235 travelling from Aldgate East to Liverpool Street:
PAGE 4 OF 19| QUOTE |
| Has a full set of Trackernet images and data been made available to the Inquests? If not, why not? If a full set of Trackernet images, complete with actual timestamps, have been made available, these should be published to allow for public scrutiny of the evidence. |
First reports from the scene claim that the explosion was caused by power surges
11. London Underground say this wasn't a cover story and in fact fitted what they were told by the drivers and the Network Control Centre
12. Descriptions from survivors tell of electric shocks
1314 and flames outside
15 the window consistent with the effects of a power surge. Ken Livingstone told the 7 July Review Committee that power surges can cause
11The attacks: minute-by-minute timeline - Telegraph - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1400032/Th...e-timeline.html
12The Mysterious Case Of The Non-Existent Train Time: Reply From London Underground - http://bridgetdunnes.blogspot.com/2005/09/...nderground.html
13J7 Incident Analysis: Liverpool Street/Aldgate/Aldgate East, Eye Witnesses - http://www.julyseventh.co.uk/7-7-liverpool...ml#eyewitnesses
147/7: Blitz On Britain: THE SURVIVOR - 'I CLOSE MY EYES AND CAN SEE | Sunday Mirror Newspaper | Find Articles at BNET - http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn41...0/ai_n14721299/
15London blast: survivors' tales - Times Online - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article541312.ece PAGE 5 OF 19explosions with catastrophic effects and a large number of casualties
16.
"There could have been had [sic] a power surge which could have had quite catastrophic casualty levels. We have always been aware of that on the Underground."
- Ken Livingstone, to the 7 July Review Committee hearings
Two companies
1718 involved in running the transport system happened also to be involved in corporate manslaughter trials on 7th July arising from the Hatfield and Potters Bar rail crashes. It was reported that an engineer lost a high tension power cable at Mansell Street in the Moorgate area
19, and that the Network Control Centre was dealing with this incident
20. Moorgate was identified as a site of an explosion in early news reports
21 and by Sir Ian Blair of the Metropolitan Police Service. Yet TfL now claim there is no record of this incident
22.
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| Were power surges examined as a possible cause or did the later explosion on the bus prevent this line of inquiry? Was a high tension power cable lost at Mansell Street? |
Ross Mallinson, injured on a train travelling to Aldgate, claims that an announcement is made of a bomb on a train:
Mr Mallinson was on his way to work as a computer programmer for an insurance company at Tower Hill when Shehzad Tanweer, 22, detonated the bomb on a train between Liverpool and Aldgate stations on the Circle Line. Minutes later, Mr Mallinson's train, also on the Circle Line, began moving again, slowly passing Aldgate station, where an announcer warned passengers that there had been a bomb on a train, probably the one directly behind Mr Mallinson's
23.
According to the Trackernet images analysed in point 5, there is no other Circle Line train travelling in front of Circle Line train 204.
167 July Review Committee Meeting Minutes [PDF] - http://www.london.gov.uk/assembly/resilien...tes/minutes.pdf
17Jarvis admits liability for Potters Bar crash | UK news | The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/apr/28/pottersbar.politics
18BBC NEWS | UK | Company admits Hatfield breaches - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4692813.stm
19BBC - London - London Bombings - Bombing: Reaction Timeline - http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articl...e_feature.shtml
20Ibid.
21Metropolitan Police Service - Response to terrorist attack - http://www.met.police.uk/news/terrorist_at...s/response2.htm
22July 7th People's Independent Inquiry Forum -> Questions to TfL - http://z13.invisionfree.com/julyseventh/in...&#entry11166583
23Beethoven, then bang for Australian victim - National - theage.com.au - http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/bee...1538866660.html PAGE 6 OF 19| QUOTE |
| What train was Mr Mallinson on? Was an announcement made at Aldgate that there had been a bomb on a train? |
It is also difficult to understand how passengers left sitting on Hammersmith & City line train 235, close to the affected train and just outside of Aldgate East station, were not evacuated immediately if it is already known that this explosion had been caused by a bomb. Some describe waiting as long as 2 hours on this train:
It was about 10:30 - 11:00 when we finally got out of the train and walked on the tracks (keeping to the sleepers as advised), up the ramp and onto the platform of Aldgate East station where we were given a bottle of mineral water and told to leave the station (there seemed to be two exits and I didn't know which to take so I just followed whoever was in front of me). A minibus was waiting outside for us and it took us on a short journey out of the area24.
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| Why were passengers held on train 235 for 2 hours? |
