On July 7, 2005, bombings bled London. 52 people died, including the four bombers. More than 700 were injured.
The suicide bombings of years ago, on July 7, by four young British Islamists on the London transport system, coincided with the start of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland. They occurred just a day after London won the bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Three bombs exploded almost simultaneously on three subway trains at 8:50 a.m. local time /7:50 a.m. GMT/. An hour later, a fourth bomb exploded on a double-decker London bus.
The London Underground bombings took place at the "Altgate" tube stations in the City of London, "Edgeway Road" to the west of the City, and in a tunnel between "King's Cross" and "Russell Square" stations in the center of the capital. The bus was blown up at "Tavistock Square", about a hundred meters from "King's Cross".
The bombers managed to carry the bombs in their backpacks. They were identified through documents found at the scene of the bombings, as well as through CCTV footage of them meeting at Luton station, 40 km north of London, before carrying out the attacks.
Three of the bombers were British of Pakistani origin living in and around Leeds, northern England. The fourth was a British convert of Jamaican origin.
Each of the four bombs used contained around 4.5 kg of high-powered explosives.
Although London linked the attacks to al-Qaeda shortly after the bombings, it remains unclear to what extent Osama bin Laden's terrorist network was involved in the attack. A report by a British parliamentary committee in May 2006 indicated that two of the suicide bombers had likely come into contact with radical Islamists during their stays in Pakistan in 2003, 2004, and 2005.