The Queen and the Prince of Wales were today visiting people caught up in the bomb tragedy. Scotland Yard said there would be an increased visible police presence across the capital today. Extra patrols will include officers from the Met, City of London Police and British Transport Police. A spokesman said: "The officers are there to assist and reassure the public, particularly in communities where people may feel vulnerable at this time, and are not a response to any specific threat. The largest atrocity in peacetime London began at 8.51am yesterday when seven people died following the first blast in a Tube tunnel 100 yards from Liverpool Street Station. At 8.56am, a blast in a tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square left 21 people dead. At 9.17am, seven people died after an explosion ripped through a tunnel wall at Edgware Road station, damaging three trains.
At 9.47am a blast tore the roof off of a red number 30 double decker bus packed with commuters forced above ground after the Tube network had been shut down. Scotland Yard said two people were confirmed dead in the bus blast but eyewitnesses spoke of seeing more bodies. An operation was today under way to recover the bodies of the 21 people who died close to King's Cross station. Chief Superintendent Willie McCafferty, British Transport Police commander at King's Cross station, said: "That operation will take as long as it takes. "Anti-terrorist squad officers are searching the scene and gathering evidence. "I would think it would be at least two days before investigations are complete and the station is able to reopen." The National Co-ordination Centre confirmed that the bodies of all of the dead are to be moved to London mortuaries by noon. But he denied claims that London's security had been compromised because of Metropolitan Police officers being deployed to the G8 summit in Scotland.
Tony Blair, who has vowed that the culprits would be brought to justice, was expected to return to London later today after the final session of the G8 summit in Gleneagles. The Home Secretary defended the decision to lower the level of security threat in the capital before the attacks, saying that all the security services thought the risk had got "slightly lower" "Obviously it was wrong. We have looked very carefully at the threat we are now under, particularly in the light of events yesterday, and the threat level will be increased." He agreed that the authorities had "absolutely no idea" yesterday's attacks were being planned. "That is, of course, the number one preoccupation the police and security services have at this moment," he said. He said the Government was taking seriously a claim on a website from an al Qaida group that it was responsible.