Death toll from London bombs rises above 50

LONDON: London began the difficult journey toward healing yesterday after deadly bombings struck its transport system. Commuters cautiously returned to the subways, Muslims wary of a backlash held yesterday prayers, and the fabled entertainment districts that cancelled shows resumed performances. But much of the city remained eerily quiet. Bombed subway stations were shrouded in security curtains and refrigerated trucks waited outside to cart away bodies still trapped in the city’s deep tunnels. Police said the bodies of 49 people had been recovered but warned the death toll would rise. An estimated 22 people were in critical condition and many were reported missing, although emergency management officials would not give specific numbers.

“We didn’t know where to go,” said Sasha Vargas, 22, a college student from San Diego, California, who was on her first trip to London when the blasts struck Thursday. British Transport Police, who oversee the Underground, said crews were still working around the wreckage of a subway train near Russell Square where at least 22 people died. Crews had reached the carriage and had seen other bodies but it could take days to recover them, said Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter. Many of the tunnels are more than 100 feet deep and rat-infested. Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said he expected the toll to rise but doubted it would reach triple digits.

More than 700 were injured in Thursday’s attacks on London — the worst attack in the city since World War II, Blair said, adding that the injured included citizens of at least five countries in addition to Britain — Sierra Leone, Australia, Portugal, Poland and China. One person died in the hospital, where 100 victims spent the night, Blair said. Authorities have said the attacks bore the signatures of the al Qaeda terror network and current and former American counter-terrorism officials said they were taking seriously an Internet claim of responsibility by a group calling itself The Secret Organisation of al Qaeda in Europe.