At least 33 killed in London attack

LONDON - A major terrorist attack has crippled central London killing at least 33 people and injuring hundreds of people on buses and in underground stations.

Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said seven people were killed on an underground train near Moorgate station, 21 confirmed dead near Liverpool Street subway station and five dead at Edgware Road.

In a press conference ambulance staff said 45 people were in a serious or critical condition with burns, amputations, chest and blast injuries and broken limbs.

Another 300 had minor injuries with lacerations, smoke inhalation, shock and cuts and bruises.

People were also killed when a blast blew the roof off a double-decker bus near Russell Square but the number was not immediately clear.

The co-ordinated series of explosions rocked the city's transport system at rush hour on Thursday morning, causing scores of deaths and up to 1000 casualties and leaving victims and survivors fleeing in shock.  The first explosion was reported at 8.59am London time (7.59pm NZT).

Early today, Sky news was reporting that reliable sources said at least 45 people had died and a thousand injured, with fatalities likely to rise.

The city was paralysed after the entire underground network was shut down after blasts were reported at Aldgate East, Edgware Road, Old Street, King's Cross, Russell Square and Moorgate and Liverpool Street.

Elaph, a secular Arabic-language news website, and Germany's Der Spiegel news magazine reported a group, "Secret Organisation - al Qaeda in Europe" - has claimed responsibility in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone said the blasts that ripped through his city were "mass murder" carried out by terrorists bent on "indiscriminate ... slaughter."

"That isn't an ideology, it isn't even a perverted faith, it's mass murder," Livingstone said. "We know what the objective is. They seek to divide London."

He was rushing home from Singapore, where he spearheaded London's winning bid to host the 2012 Olympics, following the news.

The bombings, with their echoes of the deadly Madrid bombing which killed 191 people last year, sent shockwaves across Europe and North America, with security forces stepping up alerts and increasing patrols on mass transport, while sending stockmarkets into decline.

Paul Woodrow, an official with the ambulance service, told reporters that rescue operations were ongoing and that "there are large numbers of casualties and we believe there are a number of fatalities".

At least seven people died when a bus was also ripped apart in an explosion in Russell Square - a suicide bomber was being linked to that explosion, which some media reported occurred on a bus packed with people forced off the underground when the network was shut down.

CNN reported eyewitness accounts of the bus explosion. One said: "We were packed like sardines, waiting to die."

Hilary Preston, who was evacuated at Edgware Road station, heard an enormous bang on the train next to the one she was travelling on.

"The whole thing just shook. Our carriage filled with smoke and I thought, 'My God, this is it. We're all going to die'."

She said the train driver then walked through the carriage and told everyone not to panic, and not to look into the next carriage, where the explosion had gone off."

Emergency services personnel told CNN that a rescue operation deep underground at Kings Cross station had successfully evacuated all survivors, leaving dead below ground "in the double digits".

One worker said he had removed "several" bodies from the train and "at least 13" remained there. The fire brigade has now left the station, he said, and it was now a crime scene.

The Royal London Hospital in the city's East End, which received many of the injured, said 123 of about 180 casualties had been treated and released.

Others had serious burns, bone injuries, and cut wounds from flying glass.

The Metropolitan Police had command of the disaster and hospitals across London were put on major incident alert. There were reports of the wounded being transported to hospitals on double-decker buses.

As the scale of the attack became clear, British Cabinet ministers attending the regular Thursday Cabinet meeting convened an emergency Cobra committee - the Government's emergency response body - to deal with the crisis.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said London had been hit by a series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks.

Evidence of explosives were found at at least one of the sites.

Blair, who left the G8 summit of world leaders in Scotland by helicopter to return to London, said: "It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to help the problems of poverty in Africa and ... change in the environment."

Blair said the leaders were resolved to defeat terrorism.

"It is important that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction," he said.

Scotland Yard has denied reports they were warned of an attack by Israel minutes before the blasts.

London Police Chief Ian Blair said authorities found indications of explosives at the scene of one of the blasts. He said there had been no warning.

"We are concerned that this is a co-ordinated attack. We are aware that one of the sites does contain indications of explosives," he said on Sky News.

"We have been at a very high state of alert. Of course if there had been any kind of specific warnings we would have dealt with it."

The President of the European Parliament said London had suffered a "co-ordinated series of attacks" and blamed terrorism for the blasts, which he said caused many deaths.

In a solemn statement to the assembly, which had interrupted its normal business, Josep Borrell declared: "In the last hour, reports have reached me of what now appears to be a co-ordinated series of attacks on London's transport system."

The EU legislature observed a minute's silence after Borrell said: "We all stand with you today, British people, and we will never let atrocities or terrorism defeat the values of peace and democracy."

The attack on London is the worst in Europe since bombers killed 191 people in Madrid on March 11 last year by planting a series of bombs on commuter trains.

France last night raised its anti-terror alert to red, the second-highest rating, after the series of explosions rocked London, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced.

Berlin's city transport authority said it was raising its security level.

British Home Secretary Charles Clarke said there had been "terrible injuries". Speaking at the House of Commons, he confirmed four explosions had struck London - three on the underground and one on the bus in Russell Square.

The explosions sent stocks plummeting in Europe. The FTSE 100 dropped 207.54 points to 5022.10 by early afternoon. The DAX was down 3 percent at 4,474.35, while in Paris, the CAC 40 dropped 3.5 percent. Exchanges elsewhere in Europe were also down. The pound fell to $US1.7443, ($NZ2.62) from $US1.7567 in late trading on Wednesday.

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MFAT's number for those worried about friends and relatives in London is 0800 432 111.

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