J7 London Bombings Dossier
Index 25 - Russell Square to King's Cross
Official version of events
The only train involved in an explosion in this area was the Piccadilly line train number 311 heading south from Kings Cross to Euston Square.
Query
Was there also an explosion on a northbound train that had just left, or was still at, the platform at Russell Square?. Was this the incident that caused the various reports of an explosion at Russell Square station?
Exhibits (RS-KC1a - RS-KC10)
RS-KC1a. Would the explosion on train 311 some 400-500 ms. away up the line have knocked out the lights at Russell Square as well as the lifts (RS15 - RS16a)?
RS-KC3 Would the people who had walked along the line from 311 be ‘lying and sitting all over the place” and “wandering around looking utterly dazed”?
RS-KC5 Scott Wenbourne talks of “ bodies lying all over the place in the second carriage” (The explosion on 311 was, of course, in the first carriage!)
RS-KC7 This Guardian report has rescuers walking south and seeing a body at the front of the train??
RS-KC8 This press release from Transport for London refers specifically to an incident at “Russell Square station heading towards Kings Cross” .
RS-KC10 The prime minister repeated this in the House of Commons on the 11th. July
Related Information
Summary
It seems evident that there was an explosion on a north bound train, probably just after it had left the station. It is less clear if there was another “follow up” explosion at the station itself. On balance it would seem that there was. The situation with the lifts is intriguing. As already mentioned, there are a number of first hand reports from people who exited via the lifts and paramedic Daniel Whitmore makes mention in RS-KC3 to using the lifts to bring people up. However there are also the indications that at some stage they were not working and that people trapped in them had to be rescued??
References
RS-KC1a
Rookie police were heroes of 7/7 blasts
After getting the call at Hampstead police station, officers fought through thick smoke and the fear of a secondary bomb explosion to tend to the injured at Russell Square station.
....
PC Phillippa Mason said: "We went down into the tunnel at Rusell Square to find the train. There was smoke everwhere and none of the lighting was working."
"We came across injured people lying on the platform and the train itself was obliterated."
Source): Hampstead & Highgate Express
RS-KC1b
Rookie police were heroes of 7/7 blasts
....
PC Moffet said that before the team had descended into the tube they were warned to prepare for the worst.
She said: "As we were walking down, people were walking out with injuries. It was after that I started to get a little emotional, but my colleague Mark Stanton helped me to calm down.
"We both supported each other, then the first thing we saw was a man with no legs. We were aware of so many people on the train and no method of getting them out."
Source: Hampstead & Highgate Express
RS-KC2
PARAMEDIC Bill Kearns described the horror of treating Tube passengers with arms and legs blown off.
He was one of the first medics at Russell Square station, where a bomb had exploded on a Piccadilly line train.
Source: London Evening Standard
RS-KC3
Whitmore said those working underground over the next few days faced an "incredibly difficult task". He added: "It is a very deep station and very cramped. There was a lot of dust with people lying and sitting all over the place. People were wandering around looking utterly dazed.
Source: Scotland on Sunday
RS-KC4
Ollie
My brother skipped death! My brother was going to Russel square for a Head Masters course, when at Leicester square the first train was packed of people but he managed to get in, if he had caught the second train, i could of lost my brother. Im sorry for those who have lost their friends and family! Rest in peace and god blessSource: BBC News
RS-KC5
A passenger who survived the explosion on a train between Russell Square and Kings Cross railway stations told reporters of a carriage filled with bodies.
"I was in the front of the first carriage. There was a huge, massive hole in the carriage. As I went past the second carriage, I saw bodies lying all over the floor," he said.
Another survivor from the same train, whose face was covered in blood, said loud bangs were replaced by the screams of passengers desperate to escape the wreckage.
Source: The Age
RS-KC6
8.45am King's Cross
As the northbound tube ...
Source: The Independent
RS-KC7
They had been walking south along the track for about five minutes when they saw the torso of a man, with no legs or arms, lying on the track in front of the mangled train. "If you hadn't looked hard," Asquith says, "you might not have noticed it was a person at all."
Source: The Guardian
RS-KC8
14:25 Transport for London Update
Russell Square station heading towards Kings Cross station on the Piccadilly line;
Source: Transport for London
RS-KC9
If
you were to find out that the driver of Piccadilly Line train 311 on July 7th - the originally reported blast train - was refused compensation after spending 40 minutes in almost total darkness ..
On July 9th, Transport For London reported the following blast timings and locations:
Piccadilly line train number 311 travelling from King's Cross St Pancras to Russell Square southbound.
Source: Transport For London
Note the number of the Piccadilly Line train, 311.
This was later changed to Piccadilly Line train 331.
19/Nov/2005
Thank you for your email dated 5 November.
I can confirm that the Piccadilly train involved on 7 July was the westbound train no 331. The initial reports that we received immediately at the time were incorrect and we updated our records accordingly as soon as we were advised.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Please let me know if you have any further queries or if you need any help in the future.
Yours sincerely
Fola Olafare
Customer Service Centre
Transport for London made a mistake in reporting that Piccadilly Line train 311 was involved in the events of July 7th, corrected the original announcement and then confirmed that it was Piccadilly Line train 331 on which the carnage occurred.
Granting TFL the benefit of the doubt, let's say that they made a mistake and it was indeed train 331 involved in the blasts. So far, so good, train 331 it is.
RS-KC10
I will now try to give the House as much information as I can; obviously, some of it is already well known. There were four explosions. Three took place on underground trains: one between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street; one between Russell Square and Kings Cross; one in a train at Edgware Road station.
Source: Hansard
8.45am King's Cross
As the northbound tube ...
Source: The Independent
They had been walking south along the track for about five minutes when they saw the torso of a man, with no legs or arms, lying on the track in front of the mangled train. "If you hadn't looked hard," Asquith says, "you might not have noticed it was a person at all."
Source: The Guardian
14:25 Transport for London Update
Russell Square station heading towards Kings Cross station on the Piccadilly line;Source: Transport for London
If you were to find out that the driver of Piccadilly Line train 311 on July 7th - the originally reported blast train - was refused compensation after spending 40 minutes in almost total darkness ..
On July 9th, Transport For London reported the following blast timings and locations:
Piccadilly line train number 311 travelling from King's Cross St Pancras to Russell Square southbound.
Source: Transport For London
Note the number of the Piccadilly Line train, 311.
This was later changed to Piccadilly Line train 331.19/Nov/2005
Thank you for your email dated 5 November.
I can confirm that the Piccadilly train involved on 7 July was the westbound train no 331. The initial reports that we received immediately at the time were incorrect and we updated our records accordingly as soon as we were advised.
Thank you for taking the time to contact us. Please let me know if you have any further queries or if you need any help in the future.
Yours sincerely
Fola Olafare
Customer Service CentreTransport for London made a mistake in reporting that Piccadilly Line train 311 was involved in the events of July 7th, corrected the original announcement and then confirmed that it was Piccadilly Line train 331 on which the carnage occurred.
Granting TFL the benefit of the doubt, let's say that they made a mistake and it was indeed train 331 involved in the blasts. So far, so good, train 331 it is.
I will now try to give the House as much information as I can; obviously, some of it is already well known. There were four explosions. Three took place on underground trains: one between Aldgate East and Liverpool Street; one between Russell Square and Kings Cross; one in a train at Edgware Road station.
Source: Hansard