London Subway Bombings, July 7, 2005 by Richard South

From MemoryArchive

Who: Richard South
What: London Subway Bombing
When: July 7, 2005
Where: London, England

I was on a Piccadilly line tube train in between King's Cross and Russell Square, about 8.45 this morning. There was a sudden explosion, the train stopped immediately in the middle of the tunnel and the power went out. The explosion didn't sound like a bomb, more a loud power surge - but almost straight away our packed carriage started to fill with smoke, and people panicked immediately.

Thankfully there were some level-headed people on the carriage who managed to calm everyone down - we didn't hear anything for about 20 minutes, and although we were choking on smoke it seemed to be getting better, not worse, so we stayed on the train.

Eventually someone official-looking appeared outside, and told us the live rail was off, and that it was clear. We walked down the tunnel to the platform at King's Cross and climbed up. We had no idea at this point that it was anything other than an isolated accident, but it was terrifying nonetheless. No one was really in control at the station exit - we all just wandered out onto the street as we could.

Co-opted from Guardian Unlimited