Police hope London will return to normal quickly after blasts on the transport system, British prime minister Tony Blair said yesterday, urging the public to stay calm. “We know why these things are done. They are done to scare people,” the prime minister told a news conference. “Fortunately, in this instance, there appear to have been no casualties ... We’ve got to react calmly.”

London police chief Ian Blair said there had been one casualty, but not a fatal one, after four small explosions hit London’s bus and underground train network, exactly two weeks after bombers killed more than 50 people in the capital.

The prime minister refused to be drawn by questions on whether his foreign policy had put Londoners in the line of fire. He has consistently rejected the accusation that his backing for war in Iraq has raised the threat of terrorist attacks on British soil.

“The roots of this are deep ... the terrorist attacks go back over 10 years,” he said. “The people who are responsible for terrorist attacks are the terrorists.”

He urged Londoners to continue their lives as normal. “To react in any other way is to engage in the game they want us to engage in,” Blair said.

“In the end, the values that we represent are the values that triumph.”

Blair earlier chaired a crisis meeting of emergency officials and ministers. He said it was too early for new policies or security initiatives.

US monitoring

The United States closely monitored the second wave of bombings on London’s transport network yesterday as the Pentagon increased security and U.S. transit systems were already at a heightened state of alert.

Just hours after four small explosions hit London’s bus and underground train network, President George W. Bush did not directly mention the bombings but repeated during a trade speech that the United States would not be frightened by acts of terrorism.

“They have the desire to use their terrorist techniques to frighten us,” Bush said in the speech on a major U.S-Central American trade pact. “They understand when they kill in cold blood it ends up on our TV screens. And they’re trying to shake our will.”

“They don’t understand our country though. They don’t understand that when it comes to the defense of universal freedoms, this country won’t be frightened,” he added.

Homeland Security officials said the department was closely monitoring the events in London and noted that the U.S. mass transit system was already at a heightened state of alert – a move taken two weeks ago after the first wave of bombings in central London.

Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said that security had been increased at the Pentagon in a precautionary response to the situation in London, but that there was no evidence of a direct threat to U.S. defense headquarters.

“We have a major metro facility that runs through the Pentagon,” Whitman said referring to a busy underground subway stop beneath the sprawling military headquarters in Virginia near Washington.

The increased state of alert on buses, subways and trains means more police are on watch and patrolling stations and platforms. There are also bomb-sniffing dogs on patrol, increased video surveillance of stations and more frequent inspection of trash receptacles, a Homeland Security spokeswoman said.

Bush was briefed during an early morning meeting about security alerts in London, his spokesman said.

Emergency services rushed to three London subway stations and one bus after reports of explosions two weeks after bomb attacks killed more than 50 people in the British capital.

“We’re monitoring the situation closely and the president was informed,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.