Londoners wait for next deadly wave of attacks

IT was just another day in the city of terror. North, south, east and west of its already battered heart, London's Tube network was gripped by panic as explosive devices were discovered in packed carriages.

Above ground, a double-decker bus shook to the sound of a detonation.

Amid the mayhem, London knew it was lucky to emerge without a death toll, but it also now knows the bombers are back and while they only need to be lucky once, the British capital has to be lucky always.

The bombs, at the four points of the compass, failed to deliver the deadly payload of two weeks ago - but the similarities with the 7/7 attacks were striking.

Underground was a scene of chaos and confusion as commuters fled from moving carriages, falling and trampling one another in the rush as suspected bombs were found, some smouldering, on three lines.

As one of the passengers emerged dazed and shocked from the scenes below Warren Street he revealed he might have come face to face with the bomber.

"There was smoke in the carriage. People started running and screaming, it was like being in a horror movie. I could just see smoke, one female passenger was screaming 'Oh my god, it's a bomb!' I tried running to the next carriage, but we couldn't get through the doorway. I was just waiting for the blast.

"I remember one man was just sitting down as if nothing was happening, I believe he was the bomber," he said.

Another witness, Sosiane Mohellav, recalled similar scenes of despair and turmoil: "I was sitting in the carriage reading a book and I smelt something burning. 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, still shaking from the experience.

The terror began in the west at Shepherd's Bush at 12.25pm, a few minutes later at Oval in the south a train was enveloped with smoke after a bang, "like a champagne cork popping" was heard.

A man was seen running from the scene and fled amid the pandemonium, as fellow travellers tried to tackle him to the ground.

The drama then swung north to Warren Street where emergency services responded to reports of a bomb at 12.45pm.

Again, a man was seen running from the scene, followed by the sight of officers carrying machine guns as the nearby University College Hospital was sealed off.

The clatter of police helicopters 500 feet above the hospital drowned out the thousands of people thronging the narrow streets as they were ordered away from closed underground stations.

UCH soon became the centre of another desperate manhunt as armed police tracker dogs swamped its grounds during throughout the afternoon.

To get to the hospital we passed through Tavistock Square. Just two weeks after the Number 30 bus exploded there leaving 13 dead, it was teeming with life again. Even as London's recent scars were healing, new wounds were being ripped open.

In the East End, passengers on the Number 26 bus reported a blast and then being showered with white powder, which the police believe may be the same explosive agent used in the earlier attacks. This time it had mercifully failed to explode after the detonator was triggered.

London is living on its nerves. Its residents anxiously wonder whether yesterday's blasts were the actions of a sinister copycat group, the planned second wave of terror, or a dummy run for a much bigger attack now looming.

Or was the seemingly less sophisticated nature of the co-ordinated strike a grim message to Londoners that even during the highest state of alert the bombers can strike at will across the city?

The fears of a chemical attack were not realised this time, but that is the terror wave of the future now forming in people's minds.

At Heathrow and City airports at opposite ends of London, police armed with sub-machine guns fanned out from the terminal buildings and took up position patrolling on foot on the approach roads.

Within a few months this may seem a routine sight in the new reality.

Three million people use London's Tube network everyday. Three million people were still being held hostage this morning as London adapts to its new status as Europe's capital of terror.