At 8.51, a Circle Line train heading into Liverpool Street station, the huge complex which acts as the confluence for a number of underground lines as well as overground lines from north and east London, carrying commuters in and out of the City, was rocked by a huge explosion. Terry O'Shea, 42, a construction worker from Worcester, said: "I was in the third carriage, the one behind the one where the explosion was There was a loud bang and we felt the train shudder Then smoke started coming into the compartment It was terrible. People were panicking, but they calmed down after one or two minutes. As they led us down the track past the carriage where the explosion was, we could see the roof was torn off it, and there were bodies on the track." Jack Linton, 14, from Hawkswell, Essex, who suffered cuts to his face, said: "There was a massive explosion, smoke and flames My carriage must have been two away from where it was Everybody got on the floor. Then eventually the smoke cleared and we managed to open the central doors down the train to go to the back of it before they walked us along the track past the train to the station. The middle of the train was blown out and there were people on the track. I've got glass in my hair and my pockets and my ear hurts." Many people were trapped for up to 40 minutes.
Sarah Reid, 23, a student doing work experience, was on the carriage next door to the one struck by the explosion. "I was on the train and there was a fire outside the carriage window and then there was a sudden jolt which shook us forward The explosion was behind me Some people took charge. We went out of the back of the carriage." Describing being led away from the scene, she said: "A carriage was split in two, all jagged, and without a roof, just open. I saw bodies, I think." Seven people are believed to have died on that train.
Within a few minutes, at 8.56, the underground was rocked by a second blast, a few miles to the north-west, where the southbound Piccadilly Line sweeps in from north London. Identity cards did not prevent the Madrid bombings- although Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, argues ID cards did help the police to track down the bombers because the Spanish have to produce their card when buying a mobile phone. He insists that Britain's biometric cards "will be more successful".It is too early to predict the political fallout from yesterday's events. They may indeed shape Mr Blair's legacy in a way he would not wish. Yet his warnings about the terrorist threat have been justified. As his spokesman said last night: "It was always at the back of our minds We wished the best, we feared the worst.".