Emergency response to bombs 'too slow'

Last updated at 14:48 05 June 2006


In the chaos and confusion triggered by the bombings, the emergency services missed their response time targets and were hampered by communication problems, the July 7 review found.

For the emergency services, the overall picture from 8.50am to 9.15am that day was "inevitably chaotic" amid the conflicting reports, loss of power on sections of the Tube and smoke coming from some tunnels.

There was a "rapid" deployment to Aldgate Station where the first bomb exploded at 8.50am on an eastbound Circle Line train, killing seven.

Just a minute later a bomb on a westbound Circle Line train travelling from Edgware Road to Paddington was triggered, but inexplicably the response took much longer.

All the emergency services were aware of the explosion at Aldgate by 9.14am.

A major incident had been declared separately by the London Fire Brigade, the London Ambulance Service and the police by 9.15am, 25 minutes after the explosion.

A different story was unfolding at Edgware Road where six people were killed.

The Network Control Centre called the emergency services to the scene at 8.59am, but the first fire engine did not arrive until 9.18am, 19 minutes later.

The Metropolitan Police did not declare a major incident until 9.32am.

The London Fire Brigade declared it a major incident two minutes later.

The London Assembly's July 7 Review Committee Report said: "It took longer at Edgware Road than at Aldgate for the emergency services to establish and communicate to each other that there had been an explosion.

"It is not clear to us why this should be the case, given that the train stopped only 50 yards into the tunnel, and London Underground workers alerted their Network Control Centre to the incident within minutes.

"We can only conclude that communications at the scene, and between the scene and control centres, was less effective at Edgware Road than it was at Aldgate.

"This could be a result of the emergency services focusing on the incident at Aldgate which was reported just a couple of minutes before the incident at Edgware Road."

Magnitude not appreciated

Richard Barnes, who chaired the investigation, noted that the emergency services all have target response times to various serious incidents be they 999 calls or car crashes.

He said: "At the beginning I'm convinced they just did not appreciate the magnitude of what happened, but the response was outside the target times."

A third bomb was set off killing 26 people, just two minutes after the first, on a southbound Piccadilly Line train between Kings Cross and Russell Square.

At 9.47am a fourth bomb was set off on the top-deck of the No.30 bus at Tavistock Square, killing 13.

Communication problems made it difficult for the emergency and transport services to establish what had happened to the passengers emerging from the tunnel at Kings Cross Station.

The report added: "The initial deployment of ambulances and fire engines to Russell Square was much slower than at the other sites and it took longer to establish what had happened.

"The first 999 call was not received until 25 minutes after the explosion and a major incident was not declared until 9.38am."

Emergency plans need to be changed so that if a Tube station were ever to face another terror attack that emergency services would immediately be deployed to the stations closest to the train in either direction.

The committee also recommended that the London Resilience Forum overhaul protocols so that as soon as one of the emergency services declares a major incident the others also put major incident procedures in place.

The report said: "This could increase the speed with which the emergency services establish what has happened and begin to enact a co-ordinated and effective emergency response."

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