Underground services

Services are gradually returning to normal, though on many lines the passenger numbers have been reduced by a factor of 10. I have heard stories of passenger numbers in places like White City and Bond Street. Where on a normal Friday 50 people might get on at White City, 2 got on today. At Bond Street where there would normally be 100 people getting on, 4 people got on. There are large numbers of police in the underground, sniffer dogs, CSO’s, on trains, in stations, everywhere.

As for King’s Cross, the tunnel is apparently in very bad shape – near collapse. There are still a large number of bodies, possibly up to 30 in the wreakage and the tunnel. Supports will likely be needed to make the tunnel safe first, so expect the number of victims to rise from the current 50 or so to closer the 70 or 80 mark, perhaps even more. The Irish Times reports:

Andy Hayman of the city’s specialist operations branch said police had yet to reach one of the London underground train carriages where a bomb went off at rush hour yesterday.

“When I describe the scene in Russell Square, it has yet to be the case for us to get near the carriage,” he told a press conference. “There is the threat of the tunnel being unsafe.”

The blast on the underground train between King’s Cross and Russell Square stations killed at least 21 people.

“The complexity of getting to the carriage is one of safety,” Mr Hayman said. “Just imagine an explosion that far into a tunnel in that number of the carriage, I think we can all respect the sort of things our people are actually confronting,” he added.

“I think out of respect for others that’s probably the most detail I’d want to go into.”

Search parties have been able to get near the carriage, and have accessed the situation. The diplomatic speak is probably the best thing right now, one can only imagine the scene.