Website captures spirit of Londoners

LONDON - The messages come from all over the world, but the meaning is the same: solidarity and a determination to resume normal life.

Thousands of messages have been posted on the website www.werenotafraid.com, set up by mobile phone consultant Alfie Dennen within hours of the bombings.

Moved to capture the spirit of Londoners who refused to be daunted by the attack, Dennen posted a picture of himself holding a sign with the words "We are not afraid". Since then, half a million people have visited the site and more than 3000 messages conveying solidarity, defiance and at times anger have been sent.

One, who describes himself only as Blix, writes: "If 9521 V1 bombs and over 5000 V2s couldn't dampen London's spirits, what makes you terrorists think you have even the slightest chance?" Messages from America, Australia, India, Africa, even Paraguay are posted alongside large volumes from European countries, many of whom talk not just of sympathy for Britain, but of their concerns that they may be the next target.

Reflecting the anxiety that many in London may feel this morning as they make their journeys to work, Luna Washington DC wrote: "I go thru security checks and searches and a thousand 'terror alerts' on any given day of the week, so I understand the threat quite well. But I still go thru life every day, because that's just what you gotta do."

In many of the messages, people hold simple, handmade signs.

Some also hold their Travelcards, indicating an intention to continue using the Underground despite widespread concerns over a repeat of the bombings.

Paul Wallis holds one such sign, posted the day after the attack, which reads: "Today I travel a free man in London. No Fear!"

Stoicism and humour shines through many of the entries. Ella Smith, from London, betrays a quintessentially British refusal to acknowledge any difficulties posed to her day on Thursday when she writes of seeing unexpected parts of the city she would not otherwise have seen as she walked home.

"We are not afraid (And c'mon, even if we were, we're British, we wouldn't letcha see it!)," she wrote.

Europeans and Americans wrote of their intention to keep plans to visit London in the coming weeks and months.

Pirre from Mainz, Germany, writes: "Cowards! Keep going with your bombs. It doesn't change anything. And you will never reach anything by this. Except us standing stronger together."

- INDEPENDENT