Terrorist Strike On London

[+Learned Gerbil]

I am glad to hear that everyone's loved ones are OK. I had to ring into work myself to check all were accounted for. Working where I do I have had people all over the world contacting me and checking how I am.

 

Just to kill a rumour that is spreading - the bombs in Madrid were set off by mobile phone - that is why the mobile phone net was killed in London as soon as they suspected terrorism. The undergound bombs could not have been set off that way anyway. The bus bomb might have been, but it is probably far too early for the authoiries to have any idea what method was used.

 

There were loads of suspect packages dealt with after the bombs, including in buses and in underground stations - I have not seen anyone in authority confirm that explosives have been found anywhere other than at the explosion sites.

 

Edit - Networks deny that they turned things off - the system just got overloaded. That also happened in Trafalgar Square yesterday when the Olympic bid was announced - the network collapsed with several thousand people in one place all phoning at once.

Edited July 7, 2005 by Learned Gerbil

[+Beds Clangers]

I agree with Learned Gerbil, I work in the mobile phone industry and it is not a simple task to turn off a major part of the network. Mobiles don't work on the tube. Technically it is very easy but trying to shut-down hundreds of sites would take ages, well it would for T-Mobile or Orange! Think it was just a case of network overload.

 

Today I thanked myself very lucky, I was booked on a job on Docos House, Commercial Rd very close to Aldgate East. Rather then drive in, I was going to meet at 09:00 a.m. outside Aldgate East Tube. I would have arrived at Kings X and then tube!!

 

Instead, sent to Lincolnshire near Louth. I felt physically sick when I heard the news. Cache I went for had been muggled but I just thought, what if?

 

Events in London are really horrible, just hope that all you love ones get home safely and my thoughts are with al those who's lives have been wrecked

 

Nick

[+Team Rock-it]

I want all of you to know that those "across the pond" hope that you are all ok. words are not enough to tell you how much we wish this had not happened and that even though it did how much we want those effected to get well.

 

Please everyone be VERY careful when out cacheing and in general. But don't be afraid to do what you have always done. That is where terrorists win.

 

With much Love from California USA

Team Rock-it

[+Jennifer&Dean]

Our thoughts are with you all! We hope all whose families may have been affected have everyone turn up OK. Jen's Dad worked in the Pentagon and it took him almost 3 hours on 9-11 to get through to a family member who could reassure the rest of us that he was OK. We hope the mobile services recover soon and everyone connects with their families.

-Jennifer & Dean

[+kbootb]

I think I count myself as a lucky one today.

 

I had a meeting in central London. The overground train I was on was diverted due to 'an incident' in east London. I was at Finsbury Park and went down to the underground and had a choice of Picadilly line or Victoria line. Chose Victoria as it is slightly quicker.

 

Without any explanation our train went straight through Kings Cross. Looking back on the the time that must have been about 1 minute after the bomb on the Picadilly line. For those that don't know the area these lines run just about parallel up to Kings Cross.

 

So there was a chance that I could have been on the fated train.

 

Anyway, all the messages were still about powersurges. Got to Victoria and saw the list of line out, remember that my wife was meant to be taking her class of children to London Bridge area and the tube lines she was going to use were both out. So rang her and told her not to bother (still didn't know it was a bomb).

 

My meeting was on a high floor of Westminster City Hall. each person that arrived from a different direction in London reported a difficult journey. Then the chairpersons phone went, his brother is in forensics and had been called in to the first bomb. So we knew the extent. The sky was full of helicopters and we could see a number land in the grounds of Buckingham Palace. we had to evacuate our room as they needed it for an incident control room. We were ushered into the leader of the opposition suite and a TV was provided.

 

By then all our mobiles were going off with people asking if we were OK. However most of us could not get a message out as the networks were overloaded. (Not switched off... believe me... we were up there with the incident team and know what was going on)

Anyway, my daughter was in Corfu and had heard about it by 10.15 our time. She could text me but I couldn't get a message out for hours, she was distraught.

 

We decided to walk out, the meeting is a representative one from every borough in London so we all had to go off in different directions. I had to get to the most Northerly one , but decided to accompany my (female) colleague from the neighbouring authority and then she would give me a lift home.

 

She was very frightened, her husband is a bacteriologist and part of the major incident team and had been called out. She didn't want to walk along major streets or near tourist spots, very difficult in Central London.

 

I had actually come equipped to nab a few caches, seems trivial now, but I had my PDA fully loaded with GPS maps etc, but I didn't actually have the receiver, was just going to go by map and POI.

 

Anyway, this allowed us to plane a route through ST James Park, Regents park, Primrose Hill, Hamsptead Heath and out to Finchley.

 

Quite a walk, probably 10-12 miles. In the rain, but thanksto GC at least we wouldn't get lost. (And all the caching had meant I was fit enough to do this)

 

The walk was quite surreal, no buses, hardly any traffic. Saw them filming Rosemary and Thyme in Regents Park, (Saw Felicity Kendal). Got stared at by Ostriches as we went past the Zoo.

 

I know there are plenty of other cachers that work in the area, I hope they are all safe and managed to get home in some way.

[+Learned Gerbil]

I can imagine what it was like - glad you made it out OK.

 

I am just glad I am off work this week and chose yesterday to visit central london.

[+Skippy and Pingu]

Our thoughts are with everyone affected by todays events. My family count themselves lucky as my mother was ill today and therefore didn't go into London to work. If she had she would have been in Kings Cross at probably the worst time to be there.

We agree that as a community we will need to think carefully about how our behaviour at cache sites could be seen as suspicious in the following months but tonight we should think of all those affected.

[+third-degree-witch]

Surely nobodys suprised by todays events , Its been on the cards for a long time..Someone said it was a 'Terrible day'..fair comment..Iraq and Afganistan have terrible days EVERY day. Even though we appear to have lost 37+ innocent people today it could have been far far worse.

[+macatac1961]

From Long Island, NY our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by this brutal act of cowardice.

[+Sensei TSKC]

My comment was not intended to offend, or upset, and if they did, I apologise...

No offence taken, by me at least. People who feel that maintaining a sense of humour in the face of death is disrespectful to those suffering have perhaps not witnessed much of it. I cringe to think of the jokes members of the London Emergency Services will be telling over their beers, once the dust has settled.

 

Even those of us not directly involved in these attacks will be feeling strong emotions such as anger, fear, hatred, concern; and (IMHO) humour is not an unhealthy way of dealing with these. (Though anything but sobriety in the earshot of casualties and their families would certainly be inappropriate!)

 

The blast locations are stations I used to use and are right on top of where I used to work. AFAIK, nobody I know was involved, but everyone in the office has been instructed to stay inside the building. So I'm certainly feeling all the above emotions right now!

May I, as one of the professionals who deal with situations like this from time to time, pass comment on what was said by Hazel and Phil.

 

This is a common reaction especially amongst those who have to deal with these events close up! It's a way of dealing with it. I know that what was said was not meant to offend.

 

In fact, I said something similar - to myself - when I found out. At 0902hrs I was at Edgware Road - Pre bombing. At 0919hrs I was at Kings Cross - Post bombing. I was there but that is the way I deal with it. Please be tolerant with different peoples reactions to events such as this.

 

Rant over.

 

PS> For those who want to know, I am a Met Police Officer!

[+Learned Gerbil]

Certainly no surprise to me. I stopped using public transport in central London nearly two years ago. One of the factors in my decision was vulnerability to terrorism. I now stick to two wheels.

[Nediam]

PS> For those who want to know, I am a Met Police Officer!

Although not directly affected by the bombs today, everyone at work and home has been deeply saddened by todays events!

 

I'd like to say a big thank you to you and all your colleagues at the Met, Ambulance service and Fire service etc. For doing a terrific job in what must have been terrible circumstances

 

It's time for all of us to stop petty squables and bickering (not so much referring to these forums, but more to race, religion and nationality) to all stand shoulder to shoulder and show the terrorists that we will not be divided by their actions, but will in fact be brought closer together in our resolve to rid the planet of them.

 

Thanks also to all the messages of sympathy from our friends abroad.........it's nice to know we're not alone.

[+webscouter.]

Another prayer from America. You stuck by us in our hour of despair, we will stick by you in yours.

[+shawhh]

From North Carolina, USA. My thoughts and prayers are with the British tonight. Hoping the perpetrators of this terror act are apprehended quickly and punished to the limit of the law. -harry

[+EraSeek]

From Washington State in the U.S., I just want to say our thoughts and prayers are with you all. Though far away from both London and New York, it meant a lot to us out here to know that you Brits were thinking of us during 911. Our hearts and solidarty are with you now.

 

Just some info to show our perspective from here. I have been listening to both commercial radio and public radio all day, and this story has been mostly continuous. It's a big story here as well as elsewhere. As we have it about 37 dead, 700 injured. Transportation has been a mess, and many are walking home. High on the topics is Londoner's resolve to go on with life and the history of dealing with tough things like this. The ability to pick yourselves up and not be swayed into any kind of submission by the thugs of the world. Spit in their eye, boys, and carry on!

[+cachew nut]

Our thoughts and prayers to our brothers and sisters in London.

 

Never forget what happened today. In time there will be those who will want you to forget and try to convince you that it never happened. They try that here but I will never forget. Never forget.

[+The Forester]

Lest anyone complain that this thread is totally off-topic in a geocaching forum, I would contend otherwise because of the diametrically opposite comparison between bombing and geocaching.

 

I think that geocaching is all about openness, inclusionism and altruism. Those characteristics are the very exact opposite of the narrow-mindeness, isolationism, exclusionism and cliquism of the maniacs who support bombing as a way of persuading people to support the bombers' cause.

 

The mindset which leads people to bomb their fellow human beings, - whether napalming a village or cluster bombing a wedding reception or firing GPS-guided missiles into a hotel lobby or a foreign Embassy or immolating a mediaevel wooden German city or bombing a bus queue or putting a bomb in a litter bin outside a burger bar or a Saturday morning or in the bggage hold of an airliner - is a classic case of the non-think of the mindset which is based on racism, tribalism, nationalism or religious bigotry. They have closed minds.

 

History, including some very recent history, has proved quite conclusively that bombing does not resolve disputes, it only infuriates the survivors and their bereaved. The warped souls who are behind this current campaign, presumably some mutation or imitators of al Qa'ida, will quite certainly die before they realise that their cause is as doomed as is the cause of all zealots. Zealots invariably destroy their own cause.

 

Geocaching is refreshingly free of such nationalism,and exclusionism. It is an examplar of what can be done on a global scale when people agree to share our planet and its joys with eachother and agree that our common interests vastly outweigh our inevitable differences with eachother.

 

Some day, not now while we are all angry, we will learn how to understand what caused those bombers to go the way they did. What we will find, I'm quite sure, is that they had got themselves into a position of giving up on trying to find ways to resolve their differences of cultural and religious opinion and had taken a lead from the 'big boys' who have institutionalised massive violence as a tool for disrupting and controlling other peoples' lives.

 

Then, perhaps, we will all discover that life is about enjoying its myriad little pleasures - like stumbling around nettles and gorse in pursuit of a wee plaric box full of worthless tat - and that blowing eachother to bits is not really a good way to spend our lives.

 

Cheers, The Forester

who once spent a sunny afternoon filling five plastic bags with the human remains of a friend and colleague who had been killed by an Iraqi bomb which was 'delivered' to us in Iran during the Iran/Iraq War by Western supplied warplanes - and who hates bombs and bombing and all the madness which is behind bombing

[+Chris n Maria]

Yesterday was a very long day considering I left work early! I work about 100 yards from bank tube station and spent most of the day trying to get in touch with friends and family to make sure everyone was all right. At one point we heard some loud rummbles, which thankfully turned out to be thunder.

 

The mood of most londoners on the way home was the same stoic resignation they adopt for train strikes, leaves on the line, etc. it seems Al Quieda will have to work a lot harder if they want to bring the city to a halt...that's London Transports job.

 

I came to work today as normal - there is no way I am letting those b*st*rds think they have won.

 

Peace, Light and love.

Chris

[Lactodorum]

Lest anyone complain that this thread is totally off-topic in a geocaching forum, ..........

Off topic? Possibly but I feel it entirely appropriate that in exceptional circumstances a place to express our views is what is needed. Keep your comments coming.

 

.... and keep Geocaching - despite their worst attempts life WILL carry on

[+t.a.folk]

I aplogise for my posting yesterday suggesting this thread was not caching related .

Since ,seeing more than the first two responses that were displayed when I submitted ,I can see I was incorrect.

[+Happy Humphrey]

Congratulations to all involved with dealing with this emergency, particularly the public who were not put off at all by the threat of further danger. The terrorists must have been deeply disappointed with the way this incident was dealt with so quickly and efficiently, so that London, far from being terrified, was almost back to normal within hours.

 

Hopefully, central London caches will be logged today, to demonstrate that this type of action is not going to strike fear into the hearts of the ordinary Brit, and to reinforce the notion that peaceful pursuits are the way forward, not violent acts.

 

HH

[+Alice Band]

I'm glad everyone is safe and well. This has not put me off Geocaching in London and I will be using the tube, still the best means to travel around when I next visit my family. However Alibag's point rings true - I will have to take care not to look too suspicious - hasnt an American cache been blown up recently because someone thought it was a bomb?

 

Spoke at length to my sister last night. Turned out she had to step over the remains of the people killed to get off the line in the tube. She is refusing to let the day's events get to her and has decided to spend the weekend away in the country at a B+B to recover from a very long day. She tells me that no-one is going to let those morons get to them and that they will carry on living their daily lives. As has been said, its London transport's job to bring London to a standstill. They are better at it!

 

My Muslim friend is deeply ashamed of yesterday's events. Killing innocents is forbidden in the Koran [so is committing suicide]. He wants you all to know that his prayers are with the families of the victims.

 

It was the BBC who claimed that the police switched off the local mobile network.

[+The Forester]

My Muslim friend is deeply ashamed of yesterday's events.

He should not be ashamed.

 

The perpetrators of yesterday's atrocities do not in any way, even indirectly, represent Islam or any meaningful part of Islam.

 

Blaming Islam for what was done yesterday is as absurd as blaming Christianity for the mass slaughter of Iraqi innocents by a Christian fundamentalist such as Bush or Blair.

 

Don't blame the religion. Blame the perpetrators.

 

Understanding why they do what they do is much more difficult and is best attempted later when tempers are not so hot and feelings are not so raw.

[+dino-irl]

My Muslim friend is deeply ashamed of yesterday's events.

He should not be ashamed.

As an Irishman who lived in the UK during "The Troubles" I heartily agree with this sentiment.

 

Only the evil perpetrators of this act should feel ashamed. Its indicative of the feelings that are being stirred up in the media over the last few years that peaceful citizens should feel morally obliged to accept the wrongs done by others that claim to be of the same faith/race/nationality.

[+MiTuCats]

I didn't get a chance to express our shock, sorrow and sympathy yesterday, but our thoughts and prayers were with you all day yesterday and remain with you today.

 

I first heard of the events yesterday about 6:25 AM while on my way to work. At that point, the story was that a "power surge" in an underground station had caused an explosion. Later, as I was traveling to meetings in another town, the true nature of the events became clearer.

 

I'm glad to hear from several accounts that things returned to "normal" quite quickly and that people are back to riding the tubes as usual today.

 

Again, our thoughts and prayers are with you.

[+briansnat]

A cowardly act. There is a special place in hell waiting for the perpetrators. My condolences to Londoners and everyone in the UK.

[+Team Red Oak]

I've sat here typing and erasing several times over because everything I write seems stupid and trivial. Just know we care for and sympathize with the people of London and the rest of the U.K.

 

Dawn from Maryland, USA

[+EraSeek]

Don't blame the religion. Blame the perpetrators.

 

Understanding why they do what they do is much more difficult and is best attempted later when tempers are not so hot and feelings are not so raw.

Excuse me, but they do what they do because they want us all dead. There is no appeasing here. Don't you understand! It is their version of the world or none! It is not religion, because God would never sanction such a thing! It is not politics, because politics is an instrument of the civilized! They want you the liberal and me the conservative DEAD! because we are not them!

 

They need understanding? They need the world to rise up against them! All the world. Muslims, Christians, everyone. To blame this on Bush and Blair is out of place and sick.

[+*bingoboy*]

I can see this thread taking an interesting turn from now

[+cachew nut]

Some day, not now while we are all angry, we will learn how to understand what caused those bombers to go the way they did. What we will find, I'm quite sure, is that they had got themselves into a position of giving up on trying to find ways to resolve their differences of cultural and religious opinion and had taken a lead from the 'big boys' who have institutionalised massive violence as a tool for disrupting and controlling other peoples' lives.

 

Then, perhaps, we will all discover that life is about enjoying its myriad little pleasures - like stumbling around nettles and gorse in pursuit of a wee plaric box full of worthless tat - and that blowing eachother to bits is not really a good way to spend our lives.

Learn to understand? Are you serious? These people are ruthless, barbaric animals who want to impose their will on everyone else. I'm always amazed at the liberal mindset of wanting to find excuses for why these barbarians kill the innocent. I see the forgetting process has already started.

[Lactodorum]

Sigh!!

 

This thread seems to be going the way I hoped it would not but feared it would. No positive purpose will be served by posting heated opinions at this time. I am closing it now before it goes too far.

 

Thank you for all the sincere feelings expressed.