London Terror Attacks

Horrific news out of London this morning ... more than 30 dead and hundreds injured in three explosions on the Underground and another on a double decker bus. A group calling itself the "Secret Organisation Group of al-Qaeda" has claimed responsibility. The full text of the statement can be found here on the BBC site, which also has a thorough compilation of breaking news, reporters' notes, photographs, and a map with chronology of today's attacks. American writer David Plotz is in London to promote his new book, "The Genius Factory," and Slate has posted his account of walking around the city post-attacks. Plotz finds the English being, well, English:

When I left the quiet area right around the bus bombing and returned to the busy streets of Holborn and Soho, London appeared just as it always is.

The natural state of the English is a kind of gloomy diligence, which is why they do so well in hard times. In 1940, Londoners went dutifully on with their business while the Luftwaffe bombed the hell out of them. Today, most of them are doing the same. I was in Washington for 9/11, and the whole city went into a panic. Offices emptied, stores shut, downtown D.C. became a ghost town. But in London today, everyone still has a cell phone clutched to their ear. The delivery vans are still racing about, seeking shortcuts around all the street closures. The Starbucks is packed.

And when I walked by the Queen's Larder Pub, not half a mile from the Tavistock Square wreckage, at 11 a.m., a half-dozen men were sitting together at a sidewalk table, hoisting their morning pints of ale. Civilization must go on, after all.

Eyewitness accounts give a less reassuring sense of the aftermath.

The Thoroughbred Times reports that racing at Newmarket continued as scheduled, but that Epsom has cancelled its evening card.

[Posted by JC, July 7, 2005 1:15 PM]

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