Advertisement

7/7 Victims Remembered At Memorial Services

The nation fell silent and memorial services have been held to remember the 52 victims of the 7/7 bombings 10 years on.

Four suicide bombers blew up three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus during the morning rush hour on 7 July, 2005.

Survivors, families of the dead, emergency workers and dignitaries, including Prince William, attended a service at the 7/7 memorial in Hyde Park in the afternoon.

One of the survivors, Emma Craig, who was 14 years old when the train she was on was blown up at Aldgate station, gave an emotional reading at the service.

"All of us lost our innocence on that day, our naivety, the thought that something like that could never happen to me or even to London," she told the audience of around 400 people.

"Now I can't stand up here, as many of have done before, and say that the London bombings has had an effect on me that has changed my life positively because it was, and still is, very much a part of my growing up, my childhood, my adolescence.

"But quite often people say, 'It didn't break us', 'Terrorism won't break us'. The fact is, it may not have broken London, but it did break some of us.

"Sometimes I feel people are so hell-bent on trying to make a point about terrorism not breaking us that they forget about all the people who got caught up in it. Not for my sake, but for the people who were killed on those days and their families.

"They are the people we are here to remember. May we never forget."

The service was the culmination of a day of remembrance that began with a minute's silence at the scene of the bombings.

Earlier in the day, the names of the victims were read out at a service in St Paul's Cathedral, attended by the Duke of York, the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London.

:: Interactive Timeline: Watch survivors' stories and see how the day unfolded

Candles representing the site of each bombing were carried through St Paul's by those who helped in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, which left more than 700 people injured.

They included doctor Peter Holden, who provided treatment at the scene, and George Psaradakis, the driver of the number 30 bus blown up in Tavistock Square.

Ahead of the service, Mr Psaradakis joined people laying flowers at the square.

One message, left in honour of Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30, read: "Our precious daughter Shyanu. When heaven took our angel back, they left two broken hearts."

Families of the victims also joined David Cameron and Boris Johnson as they laid wreaths at the Hyde Park memorial in the morning.

The ceremony took place at 8.50am - around the time the first three explosions went off.

On the card attached to his wreath, Mr Cameron wrote: "To the victims of terrorism in London 10 years ago today. We grieve your loss and will honour your memory forever."

Also at 8.50am, survivors and victims' relatives laid flowers and held a minute's silence at Edgware Road station.

Similar events took place at King's Cross and Aldgate, which were also affected by the attacks.

"It's still raw 10 years on," said 40-year-old train driver Mark, who was fighting back tears outside King's Cross.

He was on duty on the day of the attacks and said he was involved in the rescue operations.

"You see things you don't want to see again. It was horrendous," he said.

In Leeds, where three of the four bombers lived, Lord Mayor Judith Chapman led a silent tribute.

"They did not represent this city 10 years ago and they do not represent it now," she said.

Ten years ago to the day, the suicide bombers - Mohammed Sidique Khan, Shezhad Tanweer, Habib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay - met at Luton station in the morning and travelled to King's Cross.

Within three minutes of 8.50am, Tanweer detonated his bomb at Aldgate, Khan set off his device at Edgware Road and Lindsay blew himself up between King's Cross and Russell Square.

Hussain detonated his device on board the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square at 9.47am.