Helen McArdle has emailed Guardian Unlimited this morning to describe her experiences on the Shepherd's Bush tube hit by one of the bomb attempts yesterday. You can read her account here.
Police are appealing to anyone who may have photos or mobile phone images from any of the incident scenes, either at the time of the incident or shortly before, to send them via their website at http://www.police.uk.
If you were caught up in the incidents today or yesterday, you can use the comments section below to tell us what you saw or heard. If you have photographs or video, please email them to us at newsblog.london@gmail.com.
I was on the tube in Shepherd's Bush yesterday when the bomb went off in the next carriage. I have since been watching the news avidly and feel the need to give an eye witness account of what I experienced, as I feel there are some gaps in the media reports that should be filled.
I was travelling back from a meeting in Westbourne Park on the Hammersmith and City line, I have avoided tubes and buses since the 7th and been really careful not to travel in commuter hours. The train was by no means busy, every second seat was empty. As we went over the bridge, approaching Shepherd's Bush I heard what sounded like a small gunshot.
Nobody reacted till about 30 seconds later when we noticed a disturbance in the next carriage. Suddenly we saw that smoke was filling the carriage and people were very distressed. The train stopped on the bridge and a male passenger opened the internal doors to let in the people from the effected carriage.
What I distinctly remember was a group of young teenage girls in long black headscarves and gowns, who had been next to the bomb, coming into our carriage they sat down and were rocking back and forth, I will remember the noise one of them made for the rest of my life, she was moaning out of pure horror and terror.
What needs to be reported in the media is that the bomber had left a rucksack right next to a group of Muslim girls. If the bomb had gone off it was timed perfectly to go off while the train was on the bridge. We were completely stuck. Thankfully after about three minutes the train started moving and stopped in Shepherd's Bush, to let us off.
People in our carriage got off the train but nobody else in the other carriages were told to evacuate. There was no tannoy or staff telling people to evacuate. Passengers were having to shout into the carriages "get off the train a rucksack has exploded".
So people only slowly evacuated the station, with absolutely no guidance or help. Once out of the station I stayed around for about 15 minutes. I saw two policemen idly strolling on the opposite side of the road, walking away from the scene oblivious to what had happened, no alarm was raised. All that happened was a member of staff closed the gates to the station. When I left 15 minutes later, not one policeman had arrived at the scene. If this had been a chemical attack we were left to spread about and had no help or information whatsoever.
When I arrived home the news said there was a concern about chemicals, I was terrified, the smoke had come into our carriage. I tried to find the emergency helpline on the web, but found this impossible - all I could find was the terrorist hotline, so I called my local police station for advice, they put me on hold for ten minutes, at which point I decided to call 999. All they said was to look on the news for the helpline number, and could give me no information, including the helpline number.
I ran to my local police station to see if they new anything, all they did was take my details. At which point I decided to get a health check at my local hospital. The media is reporting that, services (police and rail staff) are reacting quickly and efficiently when these attacks happen, as an eyewitness. I strongly disagree. I experienced no help, no information and a complete lack of quick response.
