  
| 
| ||||||||||||
Londoners go from ecstasy to agonyBy CNN's Don Riddell SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS
Follow the news that matters to you. Create your own alert to be notified on topics you're interested in.
Or, visit Popular Alerts for suggestions. LONDON, England (CNN) -- Rarely, if ever, can a city have experienced such emotional highs and then such tragic lows in the space of only 24 hours. The news-stands reflected both in London today -- a surreal sight as posters celebrating London's successful Olympic bid were fast replaced by blunt headlines like "terrorist attack -- commuters dead." For two consecutive days, the eyes of the world have been focused on London -- for utterly different reasons. The previous lunchtime, thousands of Londoners had celebrated the Olympic committee's decision to award the 30th Olympiad to the English capital. 24 hours on, those same citizens were trudging home in the rain, stunned and terrified. The telephone networks were in a state of near melt-down. The entire underground train system was closed. Buses were off the roads. There were few cars, and normally busy thoroughfares like Regent Street and Piccadilly resembled postcards from a ghost town. Oblivious to the downpour, large crowds gathered at shop windows to gaze in stunned amazement at the television news. The sound-track was provided by the sirens of the emergency services. Police cars, paramedics and fire trucks tore through the city streets in an apparent state of disarray. I lost count of how many. As a nurse hurried into St Thomas's Hospital, an ambulance tore past her with the medic in the passenger seat frantically thumbing through her copy of the London A to Z. This was three hours after the bombings, and it was hard not to think London was still under attack. The military helicopters which buzzed over Buckingham Palace and patrolled the river by the House of Commons did nothing to ease concern. "Not good," was the response of one police officer when asked how he felt to be working in the capital today. Another was more upbeat. He'd been due to take the tube from Edgware Road to work today, but had decided to walk instead. In the circumstances, he didn't mind being told that he and his colleagues would have to work through the night on a 24-hour shift. It was two hours before I managed to hail a taxi. Coincidentally, my driver was an off-duty fireman, who had personally experienced the horrors of the Clapham rail disaster and the Kings Cross fire. Like all in his profession, he had been trained in emergency rescue on the underground -- specifically in response to the terrorist threat. When asked what he learned on those drills, he told me that despite the official word from fire chiefs, he said that London's rescue crews are not equipped to deal with a chemical attack on the underground. Fortunately, the terrorists chose to use conventional weapons today. I guess it could have been much worse. 
|
| ||||||||||||
| © 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
 |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
