I am here at work just around the corner
from the bus explosion on Tavistock Square. The area is completely
cordoned off and eerily silent except for passing ambulances on
occasion. Other folks who came to work late didn't manage to get here,
being turned away at Holborn (for example). It's hard to know much
about what's going on, I finally managed to catch an online radio
station (first Resonance FM, then LBC once Resonance started playing
music; everything else is overloaded) but most of my time is assuring
everyone I know that I'm
ok. Phone contact is irregular, I guess because the lines are
overloaded and/or limited for security/emergency purposes
This morning I took a #253 bus to get here, when it stopped at Euston
station there had already been some trouble as the station was being
evacuated and vans full of police officers in an extremely frantic
state zooming in the direction of Kings Cross station. I walked to work
from Euston, right down Tavistock Square, the eventual site of the bus
explosion. I heard the explosion from inside the building, but I'd not
been here long at all. Mrs. Dunce was on the tube (Victoria Line),
passed through Kings Cross on the way to work, but had arrived very
promptly before anything happened (the station was closed, or being
closed, but they passed without incident). Now all zone 1 buses are on
hold, and the entire tube is shut down.
For now, we're just waiting around and gathering news (online), gearing
up for a six-mile walk home when the time comes (update: it'll be a
while -- the police are "suggesting" to people going outside that they
go back in). But we're OK.
UPDATE: official advice from university officials is to stay put.
They're looking into the availability of temporary university housing
for those who won't be able to get home.
The view from the 5th floor balcony of our building is something else.
The streets are completely deserted except for quite a few police
officers at the intersections. Not even the sound of traffic reaches us
here.
ANOTHER UPDATE: official advice has been modified: "The current advice from the police is still that people should stay in
their place of business. We acknowledge however that staff/students
will foresee that getting home or to friends tonight will take much
longer than usual, and, notwithstanding the current police advice, if
they think it wise to set off earlier than usual they should feel free
to do so."
So with that I'll be setting off within the next hour or so; I'm unlikely to add any further updates in the immediate future.
P.S. I (still) am not sure what is going on in the Big Brother house at the moment.