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CNN Live Event/Special
Terror in London: Investigators Work to Assign Blame, Victims Recuperate in Hospitals, Survivor Shares Story
Aired July 08, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: There is no hope in terrorism. Nor any future in it worth living.
SIR IAN BLAIR, LONDON POLICE COMMISSIONER: This has all the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for a very small number of very evil needles in a very large haystack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people would be scared but it's a bother, like they're accustomed to bombs in London.
ELIZABETH II, QUEEN OF ENGLAND: I want to express my admiration for the people of our capital city who in the aftermath of yesterday's bombings are calmly determined to resume their normal lives.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CO-HOST: This is special live coverage of the terror bombings in London. We welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Christiane Amanpour at Tower Bridge.
BECKY ANDERSON, CO-HOST: And I'm Becky Anderson at King's Cross Station in London.
AMANPOUR: Today, as you heard, just earlier, the queen of England visited some of the victims, some of those who are seriously ill and in hospital.
This was, after all, the worst ever attack in England since World War II when the queen was a child. There was the Nazi bombing blitz of this capital, and then her parents went to visit and comfort those who would be wounded. Now it was her turn to do that in the worst ever casualties caused by these kinds of bombings here in London.
This is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH II: Those who perpetrate these brutal acts against innocent people should know that they will not change our way of life.
(END VIDEO CLIP) AMANPOUR: In World War II, we knew who it was. It was the Nazi bombers. We knew who it was during the '70s. It was the IRA. And there have been other terrorist attacks. But now, who committed this one? Investigators and officials, ministers say that it bears all the hallmarks of al Qaeda. But as yet, what is the concrete proof?
CNN's Matthew Chance on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): London is a city packed with security cameras. Now every face is a suspect. Each train platform, every street corner, it seems, is routinely videotaped here. Finding the bombers will be a painstaking search, say police, but thousands of hours of these images are now being closely examined to find and prosecute those responsible.
ANDY HAYMAN, SPECIALIST OPERATIONS: We have the most experienced anti-terrorist officers on this case. And we have the best community here in London to help work with us to achieve that aim. Our partners, working with us, working together, have got tried and tested procedures that I think have been admirably demonstrated to be effective in the last 24 hours.
CHANCE: But with multiple bomb sites, three on underground trains and one on a London bus, this will be a complex investigation.
Police deny closing down any phone networks after the blasts. Only a few fragments of fact have so far emerged.
Initial forensic evidence suggests each of the four bombs contained less than 10 pounds of explosives, enough to be carried in a small backpack, say police. They also believe each device was placed on the floor of the train carriages and of the bus. But there's no evidence so far, they say, of a suicide bomber or of who carried out the well-planned and coordinated attacks.
I. BLAIR: There is likely to still be a cell. Whether these people are still in our kingdom is a question. And we will remain vigilant. We must remain vigilant. This is a national issue. It's not just for London and the metropolitan police service.
CHANCE: Police say forensic teams still working at the bomb sites will probably learn more but at least one of the underground train tunnels remains inaccessible, they say, because of damage to the tunnel structure and the presence of vermin.
Terrorism analysts say the search for clues will be focusing on how the bombs were made and what that says about who made them.
PAUL SLAUGHTER, TERRORISM ANALYST: What they're looking for is the evidence to actually put it on individuals, whether it's one person or two or three people. So they'll be going through all the devices, trying to find out the fingerprint of the actual bomb makers. Once they've got that, then hopefully there will be sufficient evidence to try and trace them and then to prosecute them. CHANCE: But in the end the best intelligence, say police, will come from the general public. Information on suspicious activity, tip-offs on anything people feel may help bring the London bombers to justice.
(on camera) As this investigation gets into full swing, police are warning about the possibility of further attacks and asking the public to remain vigilant. They are in contact, they say, with other security forces around the world, but the London bombers, who were so deadly in the British capital, are still very much at large, they say.
Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: This, of course, was an attack that provoked much anger in London but also resilience, as we've seen from Londoners who have gone about their business. Those who could have gone to work and the city has not come to a halt. It does continue to move along at the pace that it normally does, except in areas that are directly affected.
And we know, of course, that the death toll has risen since yesterday. The official figure is now about 49. But it does stand to rise. The official number of people dead, that is. There are hundreds who have been wounded.
When the mayor of the city first heard about the multiple attacks here in London, he was in Singapore. He had just been there successfully lobbying, along with other British officials, including the prime minister, for London to be the host city of the Olympic games in 2012.
He issued his first statement from there. Now he's back here, back home in London. And again, he has talked out about what happened yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN LIVINGSTONE, LONDON MAYOR: An attack that sought not the powerful and the famous but just indiscriminately slaughtered Londoners, irrespective of race, culture, religion or age. There can be no way anyone can say there's an ideology or faith underpins this act. It is simply a criminal attempt at mass murder.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANDERSON: Well, there are still bodies to be recovered from here at King's Cross Station. This was the site of the worst fatalities. Some 21 bodies have been recovered from the station behind me, but 125 feet below where we stand at present there are emergency services, still working to recover some of those who died.
Those who are injured are still receiving intensive care at some of the hospitals around the city.
Jim Clancy is at St. Mary's hospital in London -- Jim.
JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Becky, the numbers that we have right now something less than 100. We don't have any specific numbers. Less than 100 people here in London remain hospitalized as a result of the attacks.
Of them, 22 are said to be in serious or critical condition. Two of them are here in this hospital, but we also heard today that two more expected to go home from this hospital tonight. So there would be about 10, eight or 10 people that are -- remain here hospitalized.
Now, this has been, obviously, an event that tested a city. It has also tested its medical staff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLAIRE BURROUGHS, HOSPITAL SPOKESWOMAN: We've seen 38 people in total with a range of injuries, casualty stuff. We're saying that they saw yesterday what they expect to see in a year of A&E work. So we have people with chest problems due to smoke inhalation. Many of the victims, their eardrums have been perforated because of the noise. We've seen breaks, sprains, head injuries.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CLANCY: Claire Burroughs told us that inside the hospital some of the victims are still having a hard time coming to grips that they were actually caught up in a terrorist attack. It is slowly dawning on them. Slowly dawning on others around this city.
And they came to this hospital and many others this day. People who are missing colleagues, who are missing loved ones. We saw a couple of cases here where a young Polish woman by the name of Monica was being searched out. A young Turkish woman named Gamza (ph) was being searched for by members of her family. Ironically, it would be thought that she would be a Muslim. We don't know that for sure. But it's just an indication of how many people were caught up in all of this.
People clearly trying to come to grips with that, still looking for loved ones. It may take them some time to get any answers. May get -- take some time, too, for other people in this city to come to grips with the fact that when they bid farewell, when they kissed good-bye, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters who they thought were on their way to work, have to come to the realization some of them are never coming home -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Jim, describe, if you will, the extent of some of the injuries that the staff at St. Mary's have had to deal with over the last 24 hours.
CLANCY: Well, clearly, they fall into two categories. You have the general category that everyone has suffered. Let's talk first, though, about the critical category, and here we are talking about people who have lost limbs. They've had to have limbs amputated as a result of the force of the blast. Others severely burned. St. Mary's is not a burn treatment center. Some of those casualties have been taken by other hospitals here in London.
But it would seem that many of those who are still hospitalized have suffered severe smoke inhalation. I am told that many of them have perforated eardrums because of the force of the blast. And other injuries that were caused by shrapnel -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Jim, just give us a sense of the mood of the staff. This has been an extremely difficult period for them. But it's been amazing to see just how prepared the emergency services in London were. And that is one of those endearing memories that we'll take from this dreadful incident. Give us a sense of the mood of the staff that you've been speaking to there at St. Mary's.
CLANCY: A couple of words come to mind. I think exhausted has to be one of them. Yes, they feel that they passed the test, but it was never a test that they really wanted to face.
They, like so many other people in London, have been on notice, after Madrid in particular, that these kinds of casualties could be incurred in a case of a terrorist attack. And it was no secret that London had been targeted.
The medical staff really has been trying to look for ways, not only to encourage one another but to encourage the victims of these bombings.
In some cases, there are patients inside this hospital who have no known family members. They're from out of the city. They're from up north. They are from out of the country. And because of that, they're waiting for their loved ones, and the staff told me here today that they are their family tonight -- Becky.
ANDERSON: Jim Clancy at St. Mary's Hospital with the grim reality of the atrocious incidents of Thursday, the 7th of July in London.
Paula Hancocks has been talking to one man who was a very, very lucky survivor of one of these explosions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MUSTAFA KURTULDU, BLAST SURVIVOR: Glass everywhere. It was like the carriage was gutted. And there was someone lying on the floor, alive or dead I don't know, male or female, I don't know. Young and female possibly. Covered in soot, wasn't moving. Whether she was dead or not, I don't know.
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mustafa Kurtuldu relives a moment he will never forget.
KURTULDU: It's still like a bad dream, you know. I mean, we were coming through like out the Underground station. I started, literally, to walk around this complete block. HANCOCKS: Disoriented, Mustafa was taken to hospital. It was only then that he started to realize what had happened.
KURTULDU: I started taking pictures after we got off the train itself. So you can see this picture is just outside of the train. I'm going down the tunnel towards Aldgate.
HANCOCKS (on camera): That's actually underground.
KURTULDU: That's underground in the tunnel. You can see the train, some wreckage.
HANCOCKS: What were you thinking in that particular picture?
KURTULDU: I don't know. I just went on auto pilot. I was just thinking, "What's going on?" You don't really think about it. You just do it. I mean, like I said, I'm a designer. So I mean, you're just always thinking about visual stuff. And it seemed as a means to take my mind off what is going on walking up the platform and then walking up the stairs of the station and then obviously outside, as well.
That's when people were starting to break down and cry and stuff. And you know, ambulance, cars everywhere. Fire brigade for a fire that happened inside. Yes, it was quite -- quite chaotic.
HANCOCKS (voice-over): Mustafa says this isn't the first time he's cheated death. He survived the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, where more than 17,000 lost their lives, pulled out of a collapsed three- story building by his father.
KURTULDU: It was a very similar feeling. Panic, shock.
HANCOCKS: Mustafa is certainly true to his name. His first name means "the chosen one" in Arabic. His surname is Turkish for the word "escaped."
Paula Hancocks, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: After this very short break, we will analyze what, if any, role al Qaeda may have played in these London bombings. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: Yesterday, a few hours after four blasts rocked this capital city and brought its public transport system to a grinding halt, the worst terror attack ever, a little known group claiming to be an al Qaeda offshoot, al Qaeda in Europe, said that it was responsible. It made that claim on an unheard of Islamic web site.
And it said that it did it because of Britain's role in Iraq and Afghanistan. And it said that it would continue these kinds of attacks against other countries, who also have troops deployed in those two countries.
Also the ministers here, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, and others have said that these attacks, the coordinated nature of these attacks bear all the hallmarks of al Qaeda.
Police here say there is no evidence of any suicide bombing, that it was conventional explosives. And they are still investigating.
But what does it mean? What does al Qaeda mean? Is it an organization or is it an ideology? In the end, does it matter if the crimes and the terrorist acts take the same kind of lives?
CNN's Barbara Starr on al Qaeda's role.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Within moments of the attacks in London, the inevitable questions: could al Qaeda be responsible? Where is Osama bin Laden? And nearly four years after the 9/11 attacks, why has he not been caught?
On an Arabic web site, a little known group referred to as al Qaeda in Europe claimed responsibility, but it remains unverified. Experts believe al Qaeda has morphed into a deadly worldwide network of cells, which may be inspired by bin Laden, even if he does not directly order their attacks.
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, FORMER ACTING CIA DIRECTOR: It's doubtful that he is in some control room, however, pressing a button and causing all of these things to happen.
STARR: Just days ago Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said, while it is still important to get bin Laden, the fight against terrorism is no longer that simple.
LT. GEN. KARL EIKENBERRY, COMMANDER, U.S. FORCES, AFGHANISTAN: No one person out there is crucial to the destruction and the defeat of that network. If we take out one financer, we take out one person, the network adapts against us.
STARR: Even so, where is bin Laden? Why can't the U.S. get him?
Many intelligence experts believe bin Laden escaped the bombing of Tora Bora, Afghanistan, in December, 2001, and slipped across the border into the remote mountains of Pakistan, just beyond this ridge line.
MCLAUGHLIN: It's a vast, about 10,000 square miles. And very mountainous. And difficult to operate in. And a very good place, an easy place for someone to hide.
STARR: The U.S. cannot simply send in troops. Pakistan is an ally. But the central government of President Pervez Musharraf has little control over this border region. Facing tremendous pressure from Pakistani fundamentalists, Musharraf will not allow U.S. troops to come in. Even before the London attacks, a vow from the general to pursue the world's most wanted man.
EIKENBERRY: He's important to bring him to justice one day, and our nation will not stop until he is either captured or he is killed.
STARR: The U.S. is using some of the most highly classified technologies available to try to locate Osama bin Laden. But the horrors of London again are reminding the world that the terrorist threat has moved far beyond the plans and actions of just one man.
Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: London, Madrid, Bali, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, name the capitals, they've all had their attacks. And it's all been pinned on al Qaeda, bin Laden. Or is it bin Ladenism? Is it an al Qaeda ideology?
We asked -- we will ask now Clark Kent Ervin, who's joining us from the United States and is a CNN security analyst and also a former official with the Office of Homeland Security.
When you look at these kinds of attacks, and when you see the claims that are made, and often they're by names that we never heard of before, what does it say to you?
CLARK KENT ERVIN, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, just what you said, Christiane, that there certainly are lots of people out there who are sympathetic to the cause of the -- bin Laden and al Qaeda. Who are copycats and acolytes. And so whether this was al Qaeda itself, directed by bin Laden himself, or one of these affiliate groups, the point is that bin Ladenism will be around long after bin Laden himself is caught and brought to justice.
AMANPOUR: So what do all our anti-terror squads, all the special branches, all the homeland securities, the military, what do they do? What do you do, trying to shut this down, if it's not one network?
ERVIN: Right. Well, a number of things. First of all, I think the prime minister, the president, other G-8 leaders are to be commended for going on with their agenda at the G-8 summit. That's important to do for a couple of reasons.
One it shows resolve. And of course, what terrorists want to do is deflect the agenda from the daily life of the west, the civilized world. Secondly, it should be noted that on the agenda is combating poverty in the developing world, and Africa in particular. And the long-term solution to terrorism is dealing with the problem of poverty and the problem of alienation that exists in so much of the developing world. That's one thing.
Secondly, the tableau of unity that was demonstrated yesterday as all the world leaders literally stood behind Prime Minister Blair just indicates how important it is for all the world to redouble our efforts to share intelligence and for law enforcement communities to cooperate against this threat of terrorism. It's a threat against all civilized people, not just the British or the Americans.
AMANPOUR: Certainly we saw that tableau, as you call it, of world leaders. We've heard them time and time again express their resolve. And they have their declaration, which they come out with very effectively after these terrible attacks that hit our capital cities.
But how do you assess how this group or this group of groups is doing? I mean, one hates to draw comparisons, but the -- the bombings in London yesterday were less deadly, for instance, than the ones in Madrid a year ago. Is that even a relevant comparison? Is it a relevant point of analysis? Does it mean anything about the capability of these people?
ERVIN: Well, we really don't know. That's a very good question. And in the days and weeks and months to come, perhaps we'll know more about it.
It could be a good sign, frankly. It could suggest that al Qaeda and its affiliates are less able now to get out the kinds of spectacular attacks that were carried out in the United States on September 11, with thousands of deaths and very, very sophisticated, turning airplanes into missiles.
It could also suggest that there's a response to what has been done in the United States and elsewhere to harden targets like that. Terrorism certainly is very adaptive and flexible, and subways, rail systems, those relatively speaking are soft targets, and they're easy to hit.
AMANPOUR: Mr. Ervin, as you know, there's been some criticism voiced here that there was a lack or a failure of intelligence. Why is it that, with such an important meeting, a G-8 summit going on, that -- that this was able to happen in a capital city here? Is that something that people should be asking?
ERVIN: Absolutely. That's a very important question, indeed. What we're hearing is that the intelligence threat level was relatively low, that there wasn't any indication that this was going to happen at this time.
And indeed, I understand that the threat level was lowered recently. And that's very hard to understand, particularly given everyone's knowing that the G-8 summit would be taking place this week. So that's a very important question indeed.
It also shows, though, that intelligence is not a science. It's an art. And it's an imperfect art. If you bat .800 or .900, you could still lose and fail. And so intelligence is absolutely key to this. And it's also sobering, because the British are better at intelligence than perhaps anyone else in the world.
AMANPOUR: Mr. Ervin, thank you very much, indeed, for joining us from Washington, D.C. And we will be back after a short break, and we will examine London, Londoners and their legendary resilience.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANDERSON: Welcome back to this special coverage of the London bombings. I'm Becky Anderson. And you join us here at King's Cross Station, site of the worst fatalities of these atrocious acts on Thursday, the 7th of July; 7/7 is what many people are referring to for the London bombings.
And shock but not surprise is the way that the authorities yesterday explained their reaction to these events. And that, to a certain extent, is the way that Londoners also reacted. It was as if London knew something would happen. It was when, not if.
Now let me tell you, Londoners are frightened, but they say they will never surrender to this sort of terror.
Jennifer Eccleston reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck.
NAOMI NIBS DEARSLEY, LONDON RESIDENT: Thank you.
JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Naomi Nibs Dearsley, a native Londoner and marketing executive, believes it's her duty to remain strong and carry on with her normal routine.
DEARSLEY: I'm going to work today, because you can't be scared. You can't be scared; otherwise you might as well stop living.
ECCLESTON: Early today Naomi was so nervous about taking the Tube to her central London office that she contemplated walking nearly seven miles, but she overcame her apprehension.
DEARSLEY: We need to carry on as normal, because we're sending a signal, and that signal is that this isn't going to defeat us. And we can't live in fear.
ECCLESTON: As the death toll continues to climb, Naomi insists this city that defied Hitler and whether decades of IRA bombings would never surrender to this brand of terror.
But despite that, she still struggles with the shock of yesterday's attacks. In the back of her mind there's a bad feeling about today's rush hour journey. Could it happen again?
DEARSLEY: I'm slightly scared. And I don't think I'm alone in that.
ECCLESTON: Naomi finds solace in the company of strangers, other Londoners going about their lives, like Simon Quincy.
SIMON QUINCY, LONDON RESIDENT: We've lived with the threat for a long time. The emergency services seemed to cope incredibly well yesterday. So it's awful what's happened, but you just have to keep on going.
ECCLESTON: Naomi's journey this morning was a bit stressful but, thankfully, uneventful.
DEARSLEY: There's a sense of, you know, sympathy and obviously complete sorrow but that life carries on as normal. We've got to keep going.
ECCLESTON: And that's part of Naomi's message to the terrorists. They won't defeat her, and they won't defeat her city.
Jennifer Eccleston, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And that sort of reaction, that sort of resilience really does typify the way that Londoners feel.
Let's take a look and see how the stock market, the financial markets reacted this Friday, just about 30 hours after those bombings. Yesterday, Thursday, those markets were down, significantly down, down by some 30 billion. The value of shares in the FTSE all-share index.
But today, just 24 hours later, these markets are back up. They're back up by about one and a half percent today. All that money back in the markets. Traders say they will not, they will not give in.
So the UK market up. The European markets up today, as are the U.S. markets. The Dow up by about 1.5 percent as the NASDAQ and the S&P markets as well.
So a determined sense from people working in the financial markets that terror will not overload the way that they deal with their lives and the way that they deal with other people's money. We are going to take a very short break.
I'm Becky Anderson here at King's Cross Station. After this break we will wrap the day, Thursday, and Friday for you.
AMANPOUR: And I'm Christiane Amanpour here at Tower Bridge near the Aldgate East Station. It was also a target of yesterday's terrorist bombings. When we come back, we'll talk to one of the very, very many lucky people who managed a very narrow escape.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AMANPOUR: I'm Christiane Amanpour. Welcome back to our special coverage of the terror bombings in London. Becky is at King's Cross station and I'm here at Tower Bridge. Go ahead, Becky.
ANDERSON: And I am Becky Anderson, here at King's Cross station -- Christiane.
AMANPOUR: Sometimes communications can be difficult. We've had problems with cell phones, we've had problems with public transport. But London still goes on with its daily business. We've said over and over again that this is a city of people who are survivors, generations of survivors. It's a city of resilience. It's a city and a nation of a stiff upper lip. But people have been shocked and they've been angered by what's happened, even though, for them, there has been all along a sense of inevitably, that this one day would be their fate.
Alessio Vinci now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daybreak, a day later. Is that fear on people's faces?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nervous. I thought everyone was a little bit nervy. There wasn't many people talking. Everyone was a little bit sort of looking around.
VINCI: But more than apprehension, there seems to be a sense of determination not to let terror get the upper hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just have to get on with it. You can't actually live in fear for the rest of your life and have these things dictate how we go about.
VINCI: Even the Mayor Ken Livingstone praised Londoners for their stoicism, urging them not to let up.
KEN LIVINGSTONE, LONDON MAYOR: I myself will use the underground to go to work on Monday as normal. And that is the advice I give to every Londoner, that we carry on in this city, working and enjoying our city as we do every other day of the year.
VINCI: Most of the subway network reopened on Friday with the exception of the areas hit by the blasts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
VINCI: Aldgate was among the stations which stayed shut as investigators searched for clues that could lead them to those responsible for the attacks. At least seven died here and, with simple gestures, people paid homage to them. Meanwhile, some of the wounded received bedside visits in hospital from her majesty, the queen.
UNIDENTFIED MALE: All of a sudden, boom, I was knocked out cold. And I didn't even know what had happened. I just realized that something was wrong. And I asked myself, am I dead?
VINCI: With a number of hospitalized victims in critical condition, police say fatalities could rise, though they say they do not expect it to reach triple digits. 13 are confirmed dead in the bus bombing, the only attack which took place above ground. But it is what's going on underground that underscores the challenges of the recovery operation. The tunnels are narrow. At King's Cross, where more than 21 died, rescuers have yet to reach the front carriage, where the explosion took place.
LIVINGSTONE: The complexity of getting to the carriage is one of mainly safety. What we don't want, of course, is more injuries as a result of trying to forensicate the scene.
VINCI (on camera): British officials say they have found no evidence the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers, meaning the perpetrators could still be alive and at large. The investigation is expected to be long and complex, and police here say they will stop at nothing to bring those responsible to justice.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AMANPOUR: Imagine surviving narrowly a terrorist attack. Imagine surviving another disaster just a year ago. CNN's Zain Verjee in our London studio now with the story of one very, very lucky person.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Christiane. Well, survivors of the blast still shaken by the experience. For many, it was the first experience with terrorism. Needless to say, they hope it will be their last. Then there is the case of one man, Trent Mongan. He was in King's Cross when the second of the four explosions shook morning commuters. He was also in Bali when terrorists bombed the Indonesian island in 2002, and he experienced the tsunami in Sri Lanka.
Thank you so much for being with us. Wow. How do those incidents compare? And does being in Sri Lanka and Bali help in applying lessons to what you experienced in London?
TRENT MONGAN, SURVIVOR: Well, I think being in Bali and being in London, there's some very, very similar -- how do you say it, points of injury on people. I know that sounds terrible, but the same injuries were experienced in Bali as they were here, the same modus operandi by the terrorists. And they use the same basis of -- base of weapons, small explosive parcels. Well, the bombs in Bali were a little bit bigger, so there was a bit more devastation, a lot more injured. And the tsunami, well, I only saw some people injured at Colombo Airport, but I've seen the footage, as everyone has, in the media, and it compares quite clearly.
VERJEE: What are some of the lessons that you've learned about how people react in a crisis?
MONGAN: Well, you've got really three types of people. Those that are injured and can't really look after themselves. You've got the people that are too shocked to really be productive. And then you've got the people that really rise to the surface. And I think the London Emergency Services have demonstrated themselves as the cream of the crop, same as the New York firemen in 9/11. You know, you've got the people that come to the surface and through many years of training and experience, that they can do that.
VERJEE: How is it that you explain it, even to yourself, why you're in the middle of disasters like this and you survive?
MONGAN: I don't know. I am either very, very lucky or -- I don't know. I walked out of (INAUDIBLE) club, you know, ten minutes before it blew up. I was in Sri Lanka, even though I was not on the coast. And then I just walked out of King's Cross station before it blew up behind me. I don't know. I don't really know. Maybe I'm put here to help others. I don't know. I'm seeing my life in a different light these days.
VERJEE: Has your view of fate changed?
MONGAN: Absolutely.
VERJEE: How?
MONGAN: You get dealt your hand. I think your hand of life is dealt when you're born. There's a certain plan for you. You're a journalist. People are in the military, some people are nurses, some people are doctors. I think fate plays an important role in that and I've been put in certain situations to help others. And I'll continue to do that, I think.
VERJEE: The helping, the learning also. What is it that you've learned about life and about how human beings experience disasters like this?
MONGAN: Well, what I've learned about life is that there's some terrible, terrible people in this world. What I've also learned is some fantastic people in this world. And at the end of the day, you've got to put the ones that have a negative impact on your life behind you, and you got to embrace the ones that have a positive impact on your life. And you've got to move forward with those people.
And you know, 9/11 I think set the standard. The New York fireman and the police and the ambulance people there, they bonded together in Bali. The volunteers, the doctors, the military people, we bonded together, we moved forward. In London they have done exactly the same thing today.
AMANPOUR: Do you consider yourself the luckiest man in the world or just jinxed?
MONGAN: I consider myself -- I'm a bit of an optimist. I think the glass is half full. I don't think I'm jinxed. And I think I'm very, very lucky. So, I think from now on I would like to live a very boring existence.
AMANPOUR: You are very lucky as you say. Trent Mongan, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
MONGAN: Thanks for having me.
AMANPOUR: Your welcome. CNN asked our viewers to share your thoughts on the London bombings. Here are some of the e-mails that we received from you. Yomna in Egypt writes, "I'm an Egyptian Muslim girl, and I want to send the British people my sincere condolences. I hope the attackers will be captured and punished as soon as possible."
Barbara in New York writes this, "stop glamorizing them by calling them terrorists, call them what they are, murderers."
Dominic writes to us from Abuja in Nigeria, and says, "the ordinary people on the subway trains and buses, the helpless targets of these attacks must compel their leaders to quickly address the fundamental and underlying reasons why some people would want to blow themselves up and others into pieces as happened in London yesterday. There is only then that they're safety will be guaranteed."
In the United Kingdom, Lee writes, "the last people that did this to London on this scale had swastikas on their arms. And as the man said back then, we will never surrender."
You can read more of your thoughts and feelings about the attacks on our special Web site at CNN.com/London. And if you witnessed the attacks in London, CNN invites you to submit your stories, your images, your video clips. And we ask in a special CNN.com poll "do you feel scared to travel after the terrorist attacks on London's transport network?" You can find all of that and more at CNN.com/London.
Still ahead, presenting a united front: The British prime minister pushes through his agenda at the G-8 summit. And still to come on this CNN special report. The story behind one of the front page headlines of this tragedy. That's still to come. This is CNN.
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AMANPOUR: I'm Christiane Amanpour. Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the impact and the aftermath of the terrorist bombings, the worst ever to strike London.
ANDERSON: And I'm Becky Anderson at King's Cross station, the site of the worst of the fatalities. 21 people killed here. The emergency services still working below us -- 150 feet below us, rescuing bodies, unfortunately bodies at this point. Nobody else left alive, of course.
Now, the queen -- Queen Elizabeth II -- canceled her engagements today in a show of public support. And Christiane, many people will say I suppose, that is only fitting. But it is a significant day today, the royal family has been out and about, haven't they?
AMANPOUR: Yes, absolutely. Both the queen and her son and other members of the royal family. And you know, it's so evocative, because this was the worst attack on England, on London since the World War II bombings known as the Blitz. And as one of the people in the sound bites that we just heard said the last people who did this to us wore swastikas on their arm bands.
And you remember, when the queen was a child -- I wasn't alive but the memories are so vivid in British history and in London lore of the queen mother and then King George VI going and visiting the wounded after the bombings of London and keeping their spirits up. And this seems very much in the same tradition, Becky.
ANDERSON: Yeah. Some people might say it's a fairly archaic idea that it means something to the British public. There will be many people here who don't believe in the royal family. But I think on a day like this, it is incredibly important that there is support shown by everybody, that being the prime minister, those in the administration, and indeed, by the royal family. Hannah Callahan has this report.
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HANNAH CALLAHAN, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Professional dancer Bruce Lait was meant to be performing on stage today, but instead he was given an audience with the queen. Bruce and his dance partner were on the tube as it left Liverpool Street station. They were just feet from the explosion.
BRUCE LAIT, SURVIVOR: All of a sudden, I was knocked out cold. And I didn't even know what had happened. I just realized that something was wrong. And I asked myself, am I dead? Am I dead? And I thought, well no, I can't be dead, because I'm thinking. My brain is still thinking. And I can't be dead.
CALLAHAN: Bruce's parents, like so many other relatives, have endured the worst 24 hours of their lives.
Now the initial shock is over, the whole family is beginning to realize just how much worse it could have been.
PAT LAIT, MOTHER: The are -- just feel so lucky that they were right close to the bomb. And they were virtually untouched, apart from superficial injuries. Whereas people all around them were dead, dying, missing limbs. It was awful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How has the staff been? How has being treated?
P. LAIT: The staff are superb, they're really lovely. And they've looked after him perfectly.
CALLAHAN: Those are sentiments shared by the prince of Wales and the duchess of Cornwall. They were meeting staff in St. Mary's hospital in West London. They way the emergency services responded to the attacks, they said, made them proud to be British.
For the first time on a major emergency, paramedics, the fire service, air ambulance staff and police all worked together. They have been rehearsing the emergency plan for months, but suddenly this was for real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do rehearse, as you know. But there's something that is really much, much more pungent about the real thing. CALLAHAN: Staff and volunteers have worked flat out to get an estimated 700 patients treated. It's a debt the injured and their families can never fully repay.
Hannah Callahan, ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Well, the bombings in London, of course, got underway just as the G-8 summit started in Scotland. It was there that Tony Blair pushed through a comprehensive package doubling aid to Africa. And it became extremely obvious that those who were there, the leaders of the world, needed to get together in a show of solidarity and moral support for those who have been hurt, injured and died in the bombings in London.
Robin Oakley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They met, as Tony Blair admitted, in the shadow of terrorism. But as the leaders signed up to their communique, he insisted it wouldn't obscure their achievements.
TONY BLAIR, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: The purpose of terrorism is not only to kill and maim the innocent, it is to put despair and anger and hatred in people's hearts. It is by savagery designed to cover all conventional politics in darkness, to overwhelm the dignity of democracy and proper process with the impact of bloodshed and of terror. There is no hope in terrorism, nor any future in it worth living.
OAKLEY (voice-over): G-8, he said, provided a contrasting politics of hope. One part of that hope is a pledge by the members to provide $3 billion to the Palestinian authority to end the reign of terror in that part of the world. So, as his fellow G-8 leaders applauded Blair and by implication, each other, what had they achieved?
With African leaders present, he listed the benefits from an agreed plan of action. A $50 billion boost in aid. Widespread debt forgiveness. Universal AIDS treatment. And an African peacekeeping force. But it wouldn't, he admitted, in face of the expectations raised at Live 8 concerts, make poverty history.
BLAIR: It isn't the end of poverty in Africa. But it is the hope that it can be ended. It isn't all everyone wanted, but it is progress, real and achievable progress.
OAKLEY: On the summit's other main aim, an urgent program to begin the reversal of global warming, they agreed to march in step, but slowly. No targeted reductions in greenhouse gases, more an agreement to keep talking while they speed research on clean energy technologies. Environmental campaigners were underwhelmed. MARK KENBER, DIR., THE CLIMATE GROUP: Well, we've seen very little real progress, and I suppose we should thankful that it's not a step backward, either. There's been reaffirmation of the importance of climate change. The very fact it's on the agenda at all shows that it's an important global issue. But we haven't seen real leadership in terms of concrete actions or timetables or anything of that nature.
OAKLEY (on camera): African nations and their supporters had feared the terrorists had ruined their big moment. There will be still quibbles over precise sums and dates, but in the end, they got much of what they'd hoped for. Several leaders had come to Gleneagles reluctant to agree to a doubling of aid, but in the end, they came around to backing Tony Blair, partly, say diplomats, because at such a time it was crucial to show solidarity. One up for the politics of hope.
Robin Oakley, CNN, Gleneagles, Scotland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: And after this short break, the photo that is being seen as the face of this tragedy. You're watching a special report here on CNN. Stay with us.
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AMANPOUR: I'm Christiane Amanpour at Tower Bridge in London. Welcome back to our special coverage, the impact of the terror bombings in London. You heard there a military band playing the British national anthem outside the State Department in the United States. And it reminds me of when the British military band played "The Star-Spangled Banner" outside Buckingham Palace and other locations, the U.S. embassy, after the 9/11 attacks. There's very much a feeling of solidarity. If the scale of what happened is not the same, the feeling of being victims, of having been violated and attacked, the feeling of solidarity of between many capitals who have now undergone this is very real -- Becky.
ANDERSON: That's right, Christiane. I'm Becky Anderson outside King's Cross station in London.
Let me just tell one small story that I had today. I put my phone on this morning and I had an S&S message from a friend of mine. And it simply said this: "I'm on a bus. My wife Karen is on a tube. We will not give up. We will not give in." And it sort of made me realize just how we all feel here and how people around the world are reacting to the way that Londoners are dealing with this atrocious act.
And there have been heroes, lots of heroes out of the atrocities of Thursday. Peter Dadge, for example -- he was a fireman -- was walking past the Edgware station, Edgware Road station, which was the scene of the attacks. And he saw some walking wounded, and he just realized he had to get involved. Richard Quest spoke to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) RICHARD QUEST, CORRESPONDENT: This is the picture that many of the British papers have this morning. It is a stark picture showing the reality of what took place. The man on the right is Paul Dadge. He is with me now to tell me what happened and how this came about. What took place?
PAUL DADGE, RESCUER: I got in the tube yesterday at King's Cross just over there on the Hammersmith and City line. I work in Hammersmith. And we were pulling into Baker Street station when the train stopped. And an announcement came on that there had been incident at Edgware Road. Due to this, the train would terminate at Baker Street. So, we hear that every day on the London Underground. You know, it could be a fire alarm or a power failure.
So we all filed out normally at Baker Street, started heading down to get a connection at Paddington. And we're going down toward Paddington, obviously, I crossed the Edgware Road and saw a number of fire engines outside the station. And then they started to bring out casualties from the Edgware Road station.
QUEST: And this person was one of the casualties.
DADGE: Yes.
QUEST: Do you know who the person was?
DADGE: I believe her name is Davinia (ph). I don't really know any more about here than that. I took her name and address at the same. But it's actually a triage card, you can see that.
QUEST: And you were helping her. You were helping her?
DADGE: Yes. We saw the casualty (INAUDIBLE) and she was in there. But then (INAUDIBLE) and we had to be evacuated to the Metropolitan Hotel on the other side of the road, which is when that picture was taken.
QUEST: I suppose at the time, one doesn't think what one's doing. You help those most in need.
DADGE: Yes, yes. Very much so, really. For me, it's a lot more daunting to seeing the pictures on all the papers than the disaster of yesterday, really, to be honest.
QUEST: In what way?
DADGE: It's all a bit surreal, seeing my picture on pretty much all the papers. It's just really just surreal.
QUEST: You're a hero, a samaritan or both?
DADGE: Samaritan. I'll go for that there. I never want to be labeled as a hero. Everybody there was heroes yesterday. I don't want to be singled out. And the real hero in that picture is Davinia (ph), if that's her name. Incredible little (INAUDIBLE) lady.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: I'm Becky Anderson at King's Cross station in London.
AMANPOUR: And I'm Christiane Amanpour. Stay with us for another hour of our special live coverage, the impact of the terror in London.
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