ABSTRACT
On 7 July 2005, suicide bombers attacked London’s transport system during the morning rush hour. At 8:50 a.m. three bombs exploded within seconds of each other. The first bomb exploded on a Circle Line train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, the second on the westbound Circle Line at Edgware Road, and the third on the southbound Piccadilly Line train between Kings Cross and Russell Square. Almost an hour later, a fourth bomb exploded on a bus in Tavistock Square. The bombings occurred at a time that the UK was hosting the first full day of the G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland, and London was celebrating winning the bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The bombs killed 52 commuters and four suicide bombers and at least 700 people were injured, many seriously. The terrorist attacks caused a severe disruption to London’s transport and communications systems and stretched the resources of all the emergency services. British Transport Police Officers were amongst the first on the scene; most were involved as rescuers but some experienced the bomb blasts as primary victims. Body recovery commenced when all the live casualties had been rescued and continued for 2 weeks. The British Transport Police Service (BTP) is the UK’s national police force for railways, providing a policing service for rail operators, their staff and passengers. The BTP service is funded by the train operations companies to reduce crime and disruption on the railways. In 2005 the service employed 2774 police officers and 1204 police staff, and during the previous year the service had handled over 250 fatalities and 100 serious injuries on railway property. Most frontline BTP police officers, therefore, would expect to deal with several suicides and other deaths during a year (British Transport Police, 2006).
