July 2005 London Bombings

The 7 July 2005 London bombings (also called the 7/7 bombings) were a series of coordinated terrorist bomb blasts that targeted London's public transport system.. At 8:50 a.m., three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. A fourth bomb exploded on a bus nearly an hour later at 9:47 a.m. in Tavistock Square. The bombings killed 52 commuters and the four suicide bombers and injured 700.

The Attacks[edit]

The first bomb exploded on an eastbound Circle Line Underground train, travelling between Liverpool Street and Aldgate. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. The parallel track of the Hammersmith and City Line from Liverpool Street to Aldgate East was also damaged.
The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a westbound Circle Line Underground train. The train had just left Edgware Road and was heading for Paddington. The train had left King's Cross St. Pancras about eight minutes earlier. There were several other trains nearby at the time of the explosion, which were also damaged.
The third bomb exploded on a southbound Piccadilly Line Underground train, travelling between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square. The bomb exploded about one minute after the train left King's Cross.
The final explosion occurred in Tavistock Square on a No. 30 double-decker bus travelling its route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick. Earlier, the bus had passed through the King's Cross are and was diverted from its normal route by police, allegedly because of road closures in the King's Cross area. The explosion ripped the roof off the top deck of the vehicle and destroyed the back of the bus. Most of the passengers at the front are believed to have survived, including the driver, but those at the top and lower rear of the bus did not. By-standers were also injured by the explosion,

21 July Failed Bombings[edit]

Exactly two weeks later, a second series of four explosions took place on the London Underground and a London bus. The detonators of all four bombs exploded, but none of the main explosive charges detonated, and there were no casualties: the single injury reported at the time was later revealed to be an asthma sufferer. All suspected bombers from this failed attack escaped from the scenes but were later arrested.

Memorial[edit]

On 7 July 2006, the country held a two-minute silence at midday to remember those who died in the bombings a year before. Plaques were unveiled at the tube stations where the bombs exploded and memorial services were held at each scene to pay tribute to the lives lost.

The Bombers[edit]

The following men are stated to have carried out the attacks:
Mohammed Sidique Khan (30) - Edgware Road Tube 8.50 a.m. Lived in Dewsbury with his heavily pregnant wife and young child. (Hasina Patel miscarried August 2005).
Shehzad Tanweer (22) - Aldgate Tube 8.50 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his mother and father working in a fish and chip shop.
Germaine Lindsay (19) - Russell Square 8.50 a.m. Lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire with his pregnant wife.
Hasib Hussain (18) - Tavistock Square 9.47 a.m. Lived in Leeds with his brother Imran and sister-in-law Shazia.

King's Cross[edit]

James Adams - 32, a mortgage broker who was travelling from his home in Peterborough to London through King's Cross from where he called his mother.
Samantha Badham - 36, had taken the Tube with her husband of 14 years, Lee Harris. The couple usually cycled to work but caught the Tube because they were planning a romantic dinner to celebrate their 14th wedding anniversary.
Lee Harris- 30, an architect who died after receiving treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
Phil Beer, 22, a hair stylist, was on his way to work at the Sanrizz salon in Knightsbridge with his best friend,
Patrick Barnes, who was injured.
Anna Brandt, 42, a Polish cleaner living in Wood Green.
Ciaran Cassidy, 22, of Upper Holloway, north London.
Elizabeth Daplyn, 26, an administrator at University College Hospital in London, left home in Highgate with her partner,
Rob Brennan, before taking a Piccadilly Line train.
Arthur Edlin Frederick, 60, of Seven Sisters, north London.
Karolina Gluck, 29, from Poland, said goodbye to boyfriend, Richard Deer, 28, at 8.30am. The IT consultant was travelling from Finsbury Park to Russell Square.
Gamze Günoral, 24, a Turkish student, left her aunt's house in north London to catch the tube to go to her language college in Hammersmith.
Ojara Ikeagwu, 55, a married mother-of-three from Luton, was on her way to Hounslow where she was a social worker.
Emily Jenkins, 24, from Richmond.
Adrian Johnson, 37, a keen golfer and hockey-player with two young children. He was on his way to work at the Burberry fashion house in Haymarket where he was a product technical manager.
Helen Jones, 28, a Scottish (London-based) accountant who had previously escaped death in 1988 when wreckage of Pan Am Flight 103 crashed upon Lockerbie. Her family, from Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, said: "Helen will live on in the hearts of her family and her many, many friends".
Susan Levy, 53, from Cuffley in Hertfordshire, the mother of Daniel, 25, and James, 23. She had just said goodbye to her younger son.
Shelley Mather, 26, from New Zealand
Michael Matsushita, 37, left his fiancée, Rosie Cowen, 28, at the couple's flat in Islington for his second day at work as a tour guide.
James Mayes, 28, worked as an analyst for the Healthcare Commission and had just returned from a holiday in Prague. He was heading from his home in Barnsbury to an ‘away day’ at Lincoln's Inn and was thought to be travelling by Tube via King's Cross. Behnaz Mozakka, 47, a biomedical records officer from Finchley who worked at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Mihaela Otto, 46, known as Michelle. A dental technician of Mill Hill, north London, who was killed at King's Cross. Atique Sharifi, 24, an Afghan national who was living in Hounslow, London. Ihab Slimane, a 24-year-old waiter from Paris who was working at a restaurant near Piccadilly Circus, was said by friends to have caught a Tube from Finsbury Park. Christian 'Njoya' Small, 28, an advertising salesman from Walthamstow, east London. Monika Suchocka, 23, from northern Poland, arrived in London two months earlier to start work as a trainee accountant in West Kensington. Mala Trivedi, 51, from Wembley was manager of the X-ray department at Great Ormond Street Children's Hospital. Rachelle Chung For Yuen, 27, an accountant from Mill Hill, north London, who was originally from Mauritius.

[edit] Edgware Road bomb Michael Stanley Brewster, 52, a father of two who was travelling to work from Derby. Jonathan Downey, 34, an HR systems development officer with the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea from Milton Keynes, had just said goodbye to his wife at Euston . David Foulkes, 22, a media sales worker from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was on his way to meet a colleague. Colin Morley, 52, of Finchley, he used his brilliant communication skills to try to help charities and businesses understand their brand and, on a wider scale, he tried to change the world of media and marketing into a force for social good.
Jenny Nicholson, 24, daughter of a Bristol vicar, who had just started work at a music company in London
Laura Webb, 29, from Islington, a PA.

Aldgate[edit]

Lee Baisden, 34, an accountant from Romford, London, who was going to work at the London Fire Brigade.
Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, an Italian-born business analyst from Norwich.
Richard Ellery, 21, was travelling from his home in Ipswich to his job in the Jessops store in Kensington, via Liverpool Street Station. He texted his parents, Beverley and Trevor, at 8.30am to say he was on his way to work.
Richard Gray, 41, a tax manager from Ipswich.
Anne Moffat, 48, from Harlow in Essex, who was head of marketing and communications for Girl Guiding UK.
Fiona Stevenson, 29, a solicitor who lived at the Barbican, London. Her parents, Ivan and Eimar, of Little Baddow, Essex, described her as "irreplaceable".
Carrie Taylor, a 24-year-old graduate from Billericay, Essex. June Taylor, her mother, said: "We have a little farewell ritual. Carrie gives me a kiss goodbye".

Tavistock Square[edit]

Anthony Fatayi-Williams, 26, an Nigerian-born executive with an oil and gas company based in Old Street, had been living in the UK for eight years.
Jamie Gordon, 30, from Enfield, worked for City Asset Management and was engaged to be married to his girlfriend Yvonne Nash.
Giles Hart, 55, a BT engineer from Hornchurch, London, and father-of-two, was travelling to Angel via Aldgate.
Marie Hartley, 34, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was in London on a course .
Miriam Hyman, 31, from Barnet, north London, a picture researcher. She had telephoned her father after being evacuated from King's Cross station to reassure him that she was all right in case he heard news reports.
Shahara Akther Islam, 20, from Plaistow, East London, a bank cashier who lived with her parents, and was both fully Westernised and a devout Muslim.
Neetu Jain, 37, was evacuated from Euston and caught the bus to take her to work as a computer analyst. Ms Jain was planning to move in with her boyfriend, Gous Ali.
Sam Ly, 28, from Melbourne, died at the National Hospital of Neurology - the only fatality of ten Australians caught in the bombing.
Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, a Post Office worker travelling from Kensal Rise to Alder Street.
Anat Rosenberg, 39, an Israeli-born charity worker who called her boyfriend to tell him she was on the Number 30 bus moments before the blast. John Falding, 62, her boyfriend, said: "She was afraid of going back to Israel because she was scared of suicide bombings on buses".
Philip Russell, a 28-year-old finance worker at JP Morgan who lived at Kennington in south-east London.
William Wise, 54, an IT specialist at Equitas Holdings in St Mary Axe.
Gladys Wundowa, 50, from Ilford in London, a cleaner at University College London. She had finished her shift and was heading to a college course in Shoreditch. Her body was taken to her homeland of Ghana for burial.

See also[edit]

• List of Islamist terrorist attacks
• Islamic State
• Terrorism
• Fourth generation warfare
• Islamic rape