Warren Street, Central London
The Tube station has been closed after an explosion, possibly a nailbomb.
Mohammed Alum, 30, a retail manager from Bethnal Green, East London, was on the tube at Warren Street when a burning smell began to drift through his carriage, sending passengers into a panic.
“As my train pulled out of Warren Street, I heard a sound, like a muffled explosion, to my left and immediately, everyone let out a shout, asking what the hell was going on. The woman opposite me hugged her two young children to her, and a black man in African dress stood up and rushed to the carriage’s connecting doors to try to see what was going on. Then, a smell drifted through the doors, of burning plastic. I could not see any smoke, but my eyes began to sting, maybe out of fright. Someone shouted that it was a bomb, and then the panic started.
“Some people lay on the floor, others started pulling the emergency cord and I said a prayer to myself, while looking around for some way off the train. But the doors to the platform were shut. Then, the doors connecting our carriage to the next flew open, and a stampede of people came through, led by an elderly Chinese woman carrying a baby. Someone fell on the floor, a man, I think, but there was no opportunity to help him and he was trodden on by a few people. By this stage, the doors of the carriage that lead onto the platform were still closed, but then the African man started to wedge them open.
“Everyone was screaming and shouting, it seemed. All I could think about was my wife and child, and my brother, who is ill at the moment, and my friends, and I began to panic too. I started to push the African man away from the doors, but he held my shoulders and told me to calm down.
"The woman with the children was still sitting in her chair, and the African man went back to get her, and I got her two kids. We battled through the mass of people to get to the woman and kids. By the time that we fought our way back to the doors, they had been opened and everyone was streaming onto the platform. We set the children onto the platform, but they were swept up in the mass of people, running for the exit."
Jimmy Connor, 32, left his bag on the train at Warren Street Tube as passengers struggled to leave the carriage. He said: "People were leaving their belongings. Everyone was just waiting for the bomb to go off. People were trying to make their way to the front of the train."
Mr Connor, from Sheffield, said they could smell burning, like wiring or a fuse box. "I thought I was going to die, everyone else thought the same," he said.
Sosiane Mohellavi, 35, was travelling from Oxford Circus to Walthamstow when she was evacuated from a train at Warren Street: "I was sitting in the carriage reading a book and I smelt something burning, like wiring or tyres, and it just got more intense. Suddenly people panicked and started screaming and were walking on each other’s backs trying to get the hell out of there. I couldn’t move, I didn’t know what to do, whether to run or not. People ran and left their shoes and belongings when they smelt the burning," she said.
Stephen Thomas, 40, lives in Great Portland Street and manages a shop near Warren Street Station. “There is a sense that we have been here before and we can cope with it. The worry is that we were initially told two weeks ago that the incidents were not serious. That is what we are also being told today. I’m scared in a restrained way. I haven’t used the Tube as much as I would have before the bombing two weeks ago.”
Marieta Alexis, 40, was near Warren Street when the station was closed. The PA commutes to London from Romford:”London is becoming like Israel or Beirut,” she said. ”I don’t feel safe. Now when I take the Tube I wonder what will happen. I look at everyone, especially people carrying rucksacks. They aren’t even threatening the big guns, it’s people like you and me who take the Tube and bus. I’m not petrified but I’ve definitely become more cautious.”
Tao Dhokanandh, who was working in the Chess & Bridge shop on Euston Road, told Times Online reporter Rhys Blakely that at first the road was packed with cars, turning around and trying to get away. There was confusion and chaos for a while.
"We were asked to evacuate the shop of customers, but were told that the staff could stay," he said. Mr Dhokanandh now faces a dilemma about how to get home – his normal route is via Warren Street. "I’m very worried and concerned, but I’ll get on as well as I can," he said.
Hackney, East London
Police have sealed off Hackney Road after an explosion on a No 26 bus. Stagecoach, the bus operator, confirmed that the windows on the upper deck had been blown out, but no-one was hurt.
Manish Suchde, 42, the owner of Keyto Holidays, said: “We were standing outside our shop and just saw everyone running off the bus. There were more than 20 people and they were obviously panicking. Although they didn’t scream you could see that they were very distressed and within seconds the police arrived and told us just to get as far away from the bus as we could for our own safety.”
Paul Williamson, 19, a bank worker who was in a tattoo parlour 20 yards away from the bus, said: "The first I knew of it there were people running about and running around in the street.
"I saw a blonde lady in her 20s who had been on the bus. I think she was American or Australian. She was quite scared and shaken and I think she was in a state of shock. She said it was a minor explosion and there were no injuries but she smelled smoke on the bus. I think she was just getting off the bus when it happened. It can’t have been a very loud explosion because we didn’t hear anything where we were."
Keith Roberts, working in a shop in Hackney, told Sky news that he could see the bus from his window: "There is a bus parked opposite a shop. The bus driver was talking to one of the police. Then the bus was evacuated, the road closed and people have been evacuated from their houses.
"I’m about 100m away from the scene. Police are telling people to move away from their cars and houses and are evacuating the area. My shop is very near. I’m being told to get off the phone."
Peter Bale, Editorial Director, Times Online: "Police have sealed of Hackney Road at Columbia Road, where there is a number 26 bus. There is no obvious damage to the bus. Police say they are investigating a suspect package on the number 26 bus. There is no evidence that anything has gone off and police are declining to say whether or not it has."
Shepherd’s Bush, West London
The Tube station has been closed after another attempted bombing.
Richard Mann, who owns a joinery business underneath the Hammersmith & City Line station, said: "At least three witnesses saw a man run from the scene shortly after reports of the bomb."
He said two witnesses had been taken away to give police better descriptions of a man they said they had seen.
"They said they had seen a black man scale down walls close to the platform who had then proceeded to scale a fence and ran from the scene up Wood Lane, an adjacent street.
"My business is directly underneath the tube and we didn’t hear a thing," Mr Mann said.
An unnamed Australian witness who said he was on the train reported passengers in various moods of panic and calm as they entered his carriage before the train was evacuated.
"I was sitting reading my book on my way to work as normal, when suddenly it smelled like burning. It was a very strange smell. I have experienced the smell of the Tube malfunctioning and it was not like that. People then started coming through the carriage where I was sitting and we realised it was more serious than that."
Oval, South London
After reports of an incident, police at Oval station have found no trace of any chemical agents, but there were however reports of a struggle.
Dean Duffy, a 28-year-old bricklayer who has just moved from Brixton to Orpington, had just left Oval Tube Station when he heard a loud bang.
He rushed back to the station’s entrance to find tube passengers emerging from below. “I saw people coming out,” he said. “Some were panicking, some were calm, some were telling other people to calm down and there was some pushing. “Some people were shaking, but then some weren’t bothered"
When asked about the explosion, Mr Duffy compared it to a loud noise going off in a small space. “But it was definitely a bang, obviously some sort of explosion.
"I was frightened for me,” he said. “And I still am frightened. I am peed off and angry. I heard one gentleman come out of the station, he said a 17 or 18 year old Asian had been running away and someone else was chasing him.”
A witness who was travelling through the station told Sky News: "There were three men struggling with a man on the carriage of the train. They were struggling with him and there was a woman and a baby crying.
"There was a man was sat besides her with a rucksack. The carriage opened and the man ran away, but they couldn’t catch up with him. As far as I’m aware that person has got away, but I was just trying to find a way out of the carriage and the station."
Ahmed Basit, a 24-year-old bank worker, said he was on his way into Oval Underground station at the time it was being evacuated. He said he overheard some of the passengers evacuated from a Tube train saying that they had seen white smoke. He said: "I heard there was white smoke on the train and there was a bag left on a carriage which led to the evacuation. They were quite nervous and a bit shocked but nobody was hurt."
University College Hospital
The hospital has been cordoned off by police.
Tao Dhokanandh, who was working in the Chess & Bridge shop on Euston Road, spoke to Times Online reporter Rhys Blakely. He said that at first the road was packed with cars, turning around and trying to get away. There was confusion and chaos for a while. "We were asked to evacuate the shop of customers, but were told that the staff could stay," he said.
The Rev David Seymour, 48, was in London to visit his wife at St Luke's Hospital for the Clergy on Fitzroy Square, next to UCH. They were with their son Tom, aged 12. They were watching the cricket when they first heard about the incident. They were initially advised to stay where they were, but eventually decided to leave the building. "I saw what happened two weeks ago when I was at home in Dorset, and I thought it was close to home then," said Tom, "But to have it happen 200m away is kind of scary."
"It’s very unsettling," said Mr Seymour, "but people are showing remarkable resilience."
Whitehall
A man was arrested by armed police at the gates of Downing Street today. Television pictures showed police leading a man away from the scene in Whitehall, Central London, at gunpoint
Rishi Bhattacharya, a reporter for ITV Granada, was outside Downing Street immediately before Whitehall was cleared by police. He said: "There was a guy dressed all in black carrying a knapsack.
"I was walking behind a group of policemen going down Whitehall and I heard one of them say: ’He has just passed Derby Gate, heading towards Trafalgar Square.’
"Then some police cars came towards us the other way and armed police came towards us and went for the guy in black. They made him take the knapsack off and put it down and made him get face down on the floor. After a while they got him up and got him to move away from the bag. He had his hands up and they undid the buttons on his shirt, then after a while they put cuffs on him and took him away. It was at that time they started clearing the street."
