Anti-suicide campaign uses 7/7 image

A story on a suicide awareness campaign that uses a photograph of the July 7 bombings, has been milling around the London media this week. The billboard poster contrasts the four "suicidal British men" who "got our attention" in 2005 with the 983 male suicide victims who did not.

The people behind the Campaign Against Living Miserably said their aim was to "provoke debate", but the debate - where it exists - has focussed on its tastelessness and misconceptions. King's Cross survivor Rachel North thinks the charity's aim is praiseworthy but puts the case against this particular campaign:

"It implies that the London bombers primary aim was suicide, rather than homicide. It infers that they were simply feeling suicidally depressed [...] It even seems to be saying that perhaps the 4 bombers could have been stopped from committing suicide, maybe if they had been made aware of the charity paying for the ads.

"But there is no official evidence to support the idea that the young men who killed 52 and injured almost 800 last summer were depressed. The official account of the July 7 bombings describes the young bombers caught on CCTV as 'hugging, seeming happy, even euphoric' before they killed themselves."

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Do we need another July 7 report?

The Home Office report (pdf) into the response to the July 7 2005 bombings is a reasonably candid admission of how far some victims were let down by shortcomings in the preparations for an attack. Clearly, the government hopes that the report will help dampen down the continuing calls from some victims for a full public inquiry.

Survivors such as Rachel North, who has been campaigning for an inquiry, have not been persuaded that an inquiry would be a "distraction", as the report argues. Ms North said earlier this week: "There has been a series of meetings held and documents produced, none of which can be seen as a single public collation of all matters ... the public were attacked and are still at risk."

Today the Metropolitan police force defended its response to the London bombings. The assistant commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, said: "I believe it is important that we do not lose sight of the truly magnificent response that we delivered on that terrible morning last July."

David Davis, the Tory home affairs spokesman, said the report highlighted the "weaknesses in government planning and coordination". He called for a "single, independent inquiry into the July bombings so we can truly learn the lessons of this attack and improve our preparedness".

blogs.guardian.co.uk

Playing the blame game

As with most official reports, the results of the parliamentary inquiry into the July 7 bombings present a lukewarm mix of partial blame and reasonable doubt, writes David Fickling.

The main finding was that, despite several intelligence gaps, there was no way MI5 could have prevented the bombings.

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MI5 and the London bombings - the verdict

MI5, Britain's security service, is steeling itself for criticism over London's July 7 bombings in a long-awaited report from the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, writes Richard Norton-Taylor.

Leaks are beginning to emerge - the latest was to the BBC today. Under a headline on its website proclaiming "Security 'not at fault on July 7'", the BBC said MI5 could not be blamed for the attacks. But it is not as simple as that.

MI5 has told the committee, which meets in private, that there was an intelligence gap - which is obvious - but not an intelligence failure. MI5 argued that, given the resources at its disposal, it could not have watched Mohammed Sidique Khan, leader of the July 7 suicide bombers. He had come to the notice of MI5 but was suspected of fraud, not considered a serious a threat.

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Central London: another bus bomb alert

There's another bomb alert in central London this afternoon. London fire service has confirmed a small fire on a bus, and the discovery of a suspect bag. Two major roads, quite close to our offices here in Farringdon road, have been closed; Gray's Inn Road and Euston Road, which is one of the main roads running out west.

A police source has told PA: "There have been no bangs. We're investigating what it is." And there's a suggestion, of course, that we shouldn't rush to conclusions. London buses have been known to go up in smoke because of mechanical problems.

We've dispatched a reporter to check out what's happening, and will bring you more as it happens.

1538 Update: Our news story, updating as new information comes in, is now up here.

1540 Update: Looks like it might have been a broken bus, rather than a bomb, thankfully. All this worry is perhaps a measure of how jumpy London is at the moment. A mechanical failure, worthy of little more than an irritated tut a month ago, now sees large areas of the city closed down.

blogs.guardian.co.uk

'The age of fear'

As might be expected, two of Brazil's biggest newspapers today bear front-page pictures relating to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes. O Estado de Sâo Paolo has a woman draped in the Brazilian flag in front of Big Ben, and carrying a placard which reads, in English: "Five bullets in our hearts. Who's guilty?" Meanwhile O Globo's print edition has a picture of the man's weeping parents.

Neither paper, however, makes a direct comment on the killing; they do both mention Charles Clarke's support for the police, O Globo saying he "praised the policeman who killed a Brazilian on the tube". O Estado says the British government's attitude has "irritated" Brazil.

Under the strapline "the age of fear", O Jornal do Brasil is more explicit in suggesting that the British government is treating the matter lightly. "Rather than issue a mea culpa, British authorities sprang to the defence of those responsible."

But again, there is no direct comment on the opinion pages. In one case, it is hard to tell whether the writer is commenting on the case or not: "Since September 11 ... we've all lost a little of our liberty. When these attacks occur in Muslim countries, it's a problem of policing. When they occur in the United States, or in Europe, they become a problem of civilisations. Any Muslim who lives in western society becomes a suspect."

Citizen journalism still in its infancy

US South African academic Vincent Maher is disappointed that more citizen journalism didn't spring from yesterday's explosions in London.

Maher, who teaches multimedia journalism at the New Media Lab at Rhodes University's School of Journalism and Media Studies, wrote:

What this says to me, despite my enthusiasm for citizen journalism and the we media is that we have a long way to go. It could start with getting paid, of course but I think the real problem is that it is simply too easy to sit and wait for someone else to write it up and then provide commentary. Journalists are expected to get up and physically go there, take a photo, do something and get back to post the story ... bloggers seem to get away with armchair journalism and its getting worse and worse.

What we need is people posting pics and stories from their phones, as and when the events happen. Those people are the real deal as citizen journalists go. Email me examples if you find any - I haven’t as yet.

Maher's right that not a lot of citizen journalism went on yesterday. But there are good reasons why bloggers were "getting away with armchair journalism".

First: one cannot expect many London bloggers sitting at home or at work in, say, Hammersmith, on hearing about yesterday's explosions two weeks to the day after bombs that killed 52 innocent people, to jump in a cab and head for the scene of the blasts, not least because the Metropolitan police were pleading with people to stay where they were. So, not surprisingly, bloggers were restricted to regurgitating the breaking news coverage unless they happened to be on the scene of one of the explosions. What images there were reflected what was going on in the immediate vicinity of the snapper: see these ones on Flickr, or this one sent by Adam Randall from his phone to his moblog of roads being closed close to the Old Bailey and video of a pub being evacuated.

On the run: suspects' pictures released

CCTV images showing four men police wanted in connection with the July 21 bombing attempts. Photograph: Metropolitan police/PA

Pictures of four wanted men have been released this afternoon, as the hunt for yesterday's would-be bombers continues. The pictures, shown above, were (clockwise from top left) taken at Warren Street tube station, Oval tube, on the No 26 bus in East London, and at Westbourne Grove tube.

Members of the public are advised not to approach the men but, instead, call 999.

We continue full rolling coverage of today's events, including the shooting dead one of man at Stockwell tube in South London, and a raid at an address in West London.

'She was moaning out of pure horror and terror'

Helen McArdle has emailed Guardian Unlimited this morning to describe her experiences on the Shepherd's Bush tube hit by one of the bomb attempts yesterday. You can read her account here.

Police are appealing to anyone who may have photos or mobile phone images from any of the incident scenes, either at the time of the incident or shortly before, to send them via their website at http://www.police.uk.

If you were caught up in the incidents today or yesterday, you can use the comments section below to tell us what you saw or heard. If you have photographs or video, please email them to us at newsblog.london@gmail.com.

What the press had to say

Northern line commuters read their newspapers the morning after the latest attack on the capital. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

Four apparently failed bombs, three at tube stations, one on a bus, again at the cardinal compass points of London. Anxious passengers evacuated, streets cordoned off, travel disrupted across the capital. Four men possibly on the run. One man - later released - arrested at gunpoint on live television just outside Downing Street. A city shaken to be reminded of events two weeks ago, when a similar pattern of bombs killed 56 people.

How on earth do you tell that story with a picture? The Sun decides that you can't, and splashes "4 SUICIDE BOMBERS ON LOOSE" starkly across its front page. The Telegraph and the Independent opt for a jumble of photographs like a pinboard in a student kitchen, which at least adequately conveys the sense of chaos, and the magnitude of the task now facing police. The montage shows weeping children, armed police with guns raised, emergency workers in gas masks, a suspect being searched, a young woman breathing into a paper bag to try to calm down, and police officers, police vehicles, police tape everywhere.

On Tottenham Court Road

A deserted Tottenham Court Road. Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian

On an ordinary afternoon, Tottenham Court Road would be full of tourists and Londoners looking for bargains at its furniture and electronics shops.

But this was not an ordinary day. Warren Street tube station, at the end of the road, had been closed in a security scare, two weeks to the day after four suicide attacks on the capital’s transport network killed 56 people.

As a result, Tottenham Court Road, on this bright sunny afternoon, looked like a ghost town. Police had evacuated virtually the whole length of the street, sealing off side roads with blue and white tape.

Getting home tonight

After today's bomb alerts in London, the travel situation is further complicated - of course, tube services were already disrupted after the events of July 7. A number of lines are suspended, while some bus routes are diverted away from the scenes of today's incidents.

GU's Paul Hamilos has the latest travel information, and he'll continue to update the story through the evening rush.

Some early thoughts on today's attacks

guardian.co.uk

Richard Norton-Taylor, Guardian security editor

One thing is clear about this afternoon's events: the bombers and bomb makers were very different from the suicide bombers whose attacks exactly two weeks ago killed more than 50 people.

First indications suggested those responsible for today’s attacks were "amateurs" and their bombs were crude. There is a report for example, that one of the devices was a nail bomb.

This time, the police have more evidence to help them in their investigations. The devices themselves, for a start. There are reports as I write that the police have captured the bomber at Warren Street, or chased him into a nearby hospital. There also should be valuable evidence from CCTV cameras.

This could be good news, if it provides important information. It might help the police and MI5 fill the huge intelligence gap that the July 7 bombings so clearly showed existed.

But so many questions remain. Were they copy-cat bombers? Were the targets chosen in the form of the four points of the compass - north, south, east, west, like the July 7 bombs were supposed to be?

Members of the public reported problems on the tube lines hours before the attacks. Was there prior intelligence of possible attacks?

The answers to these questions should be forthcoming rather more quickly than those we still await from the July 7 explosions.

Blair: 'we've just got to react calmly'

Tony Blair issued a brief statement just after 3.40pm today. He said he had taken a Cobra meeting at 2.30, and just spoken to the Met police commissioner.

"We can't minimise incidents such as this," he said. "We know why these things are done. They're done to frighten people and make them anxious and worried."

"Fortunately there appear to have been no casualties. We've just got to react calmly, get on with our business as normal."

He said that, following the press conference, he would be going back to his previously planned schedule.

Alerts around London

1532 We are waiting for the start of Tony Blair's statement. We'll continue with our coverage of this afternoon's events in new posts here on Newsblog and on our front page.

1526Things remain tense around central London. Sky News reports that University College Hospital has issued an internal memo asking them to look out for a black, possibly Asian man, around 6ft 2ins tall, with wires protruding from a hole in his blue top. The hospital has been cordoned off. (1930 Update: the hospital says a memo was sent round - but the details, as reported by Sky News, are just rumours. Police say the hospital seige is "entirely unconnected" to the terrorist attacks). Meanwhile, we've just seen pictures of a man being escorted away by armed police officers from the gates at the end of Downing Street.

1445 PA reports: "The whole of Shepherd's Bush Green is cordoned off between Holland Park and the Shepherd's Bush Station". There are suggestions there is a suspect package there.

1440 It is now becoming clear that there were three attempted bombings today - at Oval station, at Warren Street station, and on a 26 bus in Hackney. Speculation suggests the detonators on these devices went off, but the bombs themselves did not. Should this be the case, there are clearly going to be huge risks in disarming the devices. But in the bombs there is the potential for clues as to who, exactly, is behind this.

1431 Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police commissioner, says there are four scenes of explosions, or attempts at explosions. He says "casualty numbers are very low" and the devices are smaller than last time. The tube is closed down "for a short while", although mainline trains are running normally. The Cobra committee is about to meet.

1430 Newsblog reader Robert Andrews notes possibly the first moblogged pictures and video from one of the scenes.

1411 Police have now closed off University College Hospital, near Warren Street. This was the place where many of the injured from the July 7 attacks were treated. There were reports earlier that someone had run off after leaving a bag at Warren Street.

1400 An eyewitness has told Sky News that he was in the carriage next to the explosion at Warren Street. Someone dumped a large, black holdall or rucksack on the train and then ran off. Other passengers tried to stop him running away, but he escaped. Something in the bag went off, making a sound "like a Champagne cork popping".

1351 It is now being reported that there was an attempted suicide bombing at Warren Street, but the bomb didn't go off properly. Some windows were blown out of the number 26 bus at Hackney, it is reported, although images from a helicopter above the scene show little damage. Scotland Yard says it is not treating this as a major incident, yet - this does not appear to be on the same scale as July 7.

All eyes on Musharraf

President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan has admitted that some Pakistani madrasas, or religious schools were connected to "extremism and terrorism" in the wake of the London bombings.

Mr Musharraf's remarks seemed unremarkable enough: he was only stating what many commentators have been saying for a long time. But they were worthy of note as only a few days before, the Pakistani ambassador to the UN, Munir Akram, dismissed out of hand any responsibility - however tenuous - Pakistan might have for the bombings in London.

No scam too ignoble

It was only a question of time until hoax emails about the attacks on London started to circulate. Today we received our first piece of spam from a correspondent offering us shares in the contents of a deposit box belonging to a fictitious "business partner" said to have died in the bombings. Our correspondent wrote:

After waiting to hear from you after my first letter to you informing you that my late business partner who died in the last bomb explosion here in London deposited some money in a safe box before his untimely death with a security company to be delivered under diplomatic arrangement to Saudi Arabia for collection at the Security Company's Annex office in Saudi Arabia for real estate investment…

Elnashar on the web

Much has been made out of Magdy Elnashar, the man arrested in Cairo today in relation to the London bombings, and his status as a chemistry student today, writes Polly Curtis. In fact Elnasher was awarded a doctorate in May by Leeds university after a five-year study. As a postgraduate student he would most likely have been teaching undergraduate students while doing his research and he would have had to have been a very promising scientist to have got there - the department ranks 18 in the country in the Guardian’s university guide. He was also awarded a grant for his study from Yorkshire Forward, the regional development agency, of up to £30,000 for his last year of research.

The title of his study - "Development of a novel matrix for the immobilisation of enzymes for biotechnology" - doesn’t give much away. The university offered the following note "for guidance”" to journalists on Elnashar’s research today: "... the research is in an area of ‘green’ environment-friendly biochemistry, involving enzymes and chemically inactive substances. Its applications are in food and environmental science".

We asked the Royal Society of Chemistry whether they could help us understand, from that information, what skills and knowledge Alnashar would have. "It is too vague to make a specific comment on. We wouldn’t even know which scientist to ask to look at it. We need more information for us to make further comments," they told us.

London, Bush and Mossad

It’s become a familiar part of the post-tragedy landscape. A shocking outrage happens and instantly people start looking for the secret, hidden explanation - the conspiracy theory that explains all.

The London bombings have conformed to the rule. Within hours of the explosions, email inboxes were filling up with rumours and whispered speculation. Why did the police say the Underground explosions were several minutes apart when in fact they all occurred at the same time? Why were there other evacuations on the tube that morning - before 8.50, when the bombs went off? Did the police know something they did not pass on?

Today's two-minute silence

The scene opposite the Guardian office at midday. Photograph: Roger Tooth

Just before midday today, a steadily growing stream of Guardian staff trooped silently down the five flights of stairs from our offices onto Farringdon Road, normally one of London's busier streets. A crowd gathered in front of the building, matched by similar silent gatherings all along the road. A double decker bus, a No 63, pulled over and switched off its engine. The driver stepped outside his cab and his passengers rose from their seats and stood with clasped hands. Just in front, a taxi driver stood by his vehicle. Cars stopped, and but for the unanswered ringing of a telephone and the incongruous sight of a young man jogging through the crowd, there was, for two brief minutes, silence as this small corner of London paid its respects to the people who died in last Thursday's attacks on our city. It was incredibly moving.

Some of our staff were on a bus near King's Cross as the silence was marked. They recorded the tribute, and you can hear it here.

Please use the comments section of this thread to let us know whether you observed today's silence and describe the scene where you were.