Witnesses saw the top ripped off a double-decker bus near Russell Square close to King?s Cross train terminal, and packed subway trains were hit in three more apparently coordinated blasts. ?I was on the bus,? said one dazed passenger. ?I looked round and the seats behind me were gone.? ?You could see bodies on the road outside. There was smoke everywhere. It was carnage,? said eyewitness Peter Gordon.

British interior minister Charles Clarke called the explosions ?terrorist attacks?, and US President Bush, speaking at the G8 summit, told reporters that ?the war on terror goes on.? ?We will not yield to these terrorists, we will find them, we will bring them to justice.? A previously unknown group, ?Secret Group of al Qaeda?s Jihad in Europe?, claimed responsibility for the attacks. In the confusion, the human toll of the blasts was unclear, with reports suggesting that dozens of people may have been killed. CNN reported that at least 10 people were confirmed dead at King?s Cross station.

Police have so far declined to give a death toll or comment on suggestions that suicide bombers were involved. Blair returned London from the G8 summit to oversee the emergency. He planned to return to the talks in Gleneagles later in the day. The Islamic Human Rights Commission warned London Muslims to stay at home to avoid any violence aimed at them.

The attacks came a day after a jubilant London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. ?I?m deeply saddened that this should happen at the heart of an Olympic city. Unfortunately there is no safe haven. No one can say their city is safe,? said International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge in Singapore.

<B>?Co-ordinated attack?</B>

Britain has been key ally of the United States in its war in Iraq, where al Qaeda is waging a bloody insurgency. Police said two people were killed at Aldgate East underground station in the financial centre of the city, with a further 90 people wounded. Around 100 wounded people were taken to Royal London Hospital, 10 of them in critical condition. London?s police chief Ian Blair said there were indications of explosives at the blast sites. ?We are concerned that this is a co-ordinated attack,? he told Sky television. London Mayor Ken Livingstone, speaking in Singapore, said suicide bombers may have been involved.

?I wish to speak to you directly ? to those who came to London today to take lives,? he said. ?I know that you personally do not fear to give your own life in exchange for taking others, which is why you are so dangerous.? People were seen streaming out of one underground station covered with blood and soot. Passengers were evacuated from stations across the capital.

<B>Trevor DATSON Mike COLLETT-WHITE</B>

TIMELINE

<B>How and when it happened</B>

■ It was at 9:15 am that the British transport police reported an explosion in London?s financial district near Liverpool railway station.Soon after, at 9:27 am Metronet, the subway maintenance company, says power surge caused an explosion in London tube station. It was at 9:41 am that London Underground reports a second explosion at a subway station in northwest London. Again, another bus explosion rocked at central London at 10:14 am. At 10:25 am, Police confirmed explosion on bus in central London in the area around Russell Square. And at 10:33 am police confirmed that at least three explosions had taken place in buses in central London.

<I>Source: Times of India</I>

INSTANT VIEW

■ <B>BRITISH PRIME MINISTER TONY BLAIR: </B>

?It?s reasonably clear there have been a series of terrorist attacks. ?It is particularly barbaric that this has happened on a day when people are meeting to try to help the problems of poverty in Africa, the long-term problems of climate change and the environment. Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country.?

■ <B>FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC</B>

French President Jacques Chirac told British Prime Minister Tony Blair of his horror at yesterday?s attacks in London and expressed France?s solidarity, Chirac?s spokesman said. ?The president told the British prime minister that the tragic events in London fill him with horror, and expressed his grief and condolence,? spokesman Jerome Bonnafont said.

■ <B>JAVIER SOLANA, EU FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF </B>

?A terrible event can happen at any time. We cannot let down our guard. We are working every day, and in a coordinated way in all the EU countries. Unfortunately there are times when one cannot prevent one (an attack of this sort) happening.?

■ <B>IRISH PRIME MINISTER bertie AHERN</B>

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern condemned the London blasts yesterday as ?a black mark on society? and said such acts of terrorism would not affect decisions by the Group of Eight. ?This is terrorism and violence perpetrated against ordinary people ... it?s just a black mark on society, a devastating blow against people,? he told reporters minutes after meeting Pope Benedict at the Vatican. ?This is a huge emergency. A terrible, sad day,? he said.

■ <B>LUCY MILES, EYEWITNESS </B>

?We were sitting in traffic jam and there was a huge explosion. Everyone ran down from the top of our bus and pushed their way out screaming but the driver wouldn?t open the doors.? ?There were hundreds and hundreds of people running back from Euston Road and some of them were crying and covering their faces. I stopped a bloke and asked what was going on and he said he had seen debris flying out of a building.?

<B>Chronology of attacks in Europe</B>

● <B>October-November 1974</B> - Wave of Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombs in British pubs kills 28 people and wounds more than 200.

● <B> August 1980</B> - A bomb planted by rightwing extremists at Bologna railway station in Italy kills 85 people and injures at least 200.

● <B> October 1984</B> - PM Margaret Thatcher?s cabinet narrowly escapes IRA bomb which kills five people at hotel in British resort of Brighton during her Conservative Party?s annual conference.

● April 1985</B> - Eighteen die and 82 injured in Madrid bombing claimed by Shi?ite Muslim extremists.