Commuters had returned to their silent daily grind. Flowers in memorial gardens were beginning to wilt. A light drizzle was falling from a grey summer sky.

Two weeks after its worst attack in 50 years, London was getting back to normal.

But today, the capital was today thrown into its worst nightmare with a series of copycat Tube and bus bomb attacks coming exactly a fortnight after the atrocity that claimed 56 lives.

At just before 1pm, the Underground was placed on amber alert and the Hammersmith & City, Victoria and Northern line were evacuated. Roads were closed around three stations. Mobile phone networks went into meltdown.

Scotland Yard was quick to inform a terrified public that the latest series of incidents - on Tubes at the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush and a bus in Hackney Road, East London - was not being treated as a major terrorist attack.

Within two hours it became clear that the four co-ordinated attacks were not on the same scale as July 7. The sense of relief was palpable as services on the Tubes began to return to normal.

But the striking similarity between today's incidents - again in a North, South, East and West formation spread across the capital in an echo of the "burning cross" - caused immediate and widespread panic.

Once again sporting excitement was struck by terrorism. This time it was the Ashes Test at Lord’s rather then the Olympics, but the symbolism was unmistakable.

Londoners had stoically returned to public transport days after the July 7 attacks; after a few days of trepidation, most had returned to their daily rituals of eyes-down silence.

The latest incidents - which have so far claimed no casualties - can only exacerbate the lingering fear. The emergency response was swift and well-rehearsed. The political response almost as rapid.

Tony Blair cancelled a visit to east London and a planned photocall with John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister.

Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, also called off a visit to the Family Assistance Centre set up to help victims of the earlier blasts.

Charles Clarke was among ministers who had been due to attend a meeting of senior police and military officials at Downing Street to discuss ways of preventing a repeat of the terror. It was hastily re-arranged as an emergency Cobra meeting got underway.

The original attacks were, according to senior police sources, "inevitable". Follow-up attacks, we had been warned, were "likely". Omar Bakri Mohammed, the radical cleric, had said specifically the July 7 atrocities "will not be the last."

By 2pm today, senior police were saying that London had had a "lucky escape". Evidence from the threatened attacks will provide forensic scientists with further material for their investigations.

But fears were raised that, dummy or not, London may not be as willing to return to normal knowing that its public transport network has again been compromised.

Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, urged Londoners to remain calm. "Stay where they are .. and go about your normal business.

"The plan is there, we've seen it happen before, the emergency services are getting control of a very serious scene," he said.

At Warren Street, Roger Holloway, 49, planning manager for a construction company working on the new University College Hospital said: “ I just hope it’s not as serious as last time. The whole thing makes you cautious as you move around.”

Jimmy Connor, 32, from Sheffield, 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.

“I thought I was going to die, everyone else thought the same,” he said.

Another man, who declined to give his name, said: “It’s become part of life, I’m very calm about it. They want to terrorise us, so we must not let them.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Times Christmas appeal: Letter from the Editor
• Conferences — what a waste of money
• Schools supremo learns a painful lesson