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A sad day for London
Today has been a very sad day for London, the antithesis of the celebrations which were due yesterday for winning the 2012 Olympic bid. This morning unfolded as one of the worst days in London's recent history as terrorists attacked first the London Underground and then a bus near Russell Square.
I managed to avoid the attacks - although apparently by quite a close margin - though I know many others were not so lucky. My heart goes out to those who had this cowardly act inflicted upon them for no reason, their familes, their friends, their loved ones.
My department had today arranged a trip for the people on our course to pay a visit to the Ordnance Survey in Southampton. We had left London by about 9.20, unaware of any of the events which had happened on the Underground in the preceeding half an hour. Garbled reports of power surges and then terrorist attacks started to filter through to the radio on the coach but it wasn't until later that we realised the extent of what had happened so close to the place we had left from.
The whole day has left me a little shaken. To show you some of the reasons why, I have created a map (partly to learn more about programming using the Google Maps API) that plots the events of this morning. You can scroll around and click on markers to find out more.
It is frightening how close these events were to affecting me and the people I was with this morning, my friends and so many other innocent people in London. The London I came back to this afternoon is a different London, a London I never wanted to experience.
Posted in Geographic, London at 12:46 AM on Friday 8 July 2005
Tags: london
bomb
blasts
explosions
terrorism
google maps
google maps api
mapping
Comments
A sad day Indeed,
Hi,
This is to express my deepest sorrow, condemnation, and sincere sympathy with regard to the shocking and the appalling violent coward attacks in London earlier today. I hope that you, your families, and all your loved ones are safe. I’m sure you’ve got the strength and the resolve to face up this tragedy, I wish you the comfort and the safety of all your loved ones.
From Cairo
Posted by: Al Sharief at July 8, 2005 3:57 AM
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