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London Hit Again With Explosions
Police seal off area around Warren Street subway station.
(Ulli Michel -- Getty Images)
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Blair was meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard at the time of the explosions. At a joint news conference afterward, Blair praised Londoners for remaining calm.
"We know why these things are done -- they're done to scare people and make them worried," Blair told reporters. Although these incidents should not be minimized, he said, "what's important is that people do stay calm and react in the way they've reacted so far."
"To react in any other way," he added, "is to engage in the game they want us to engage in."
The entire London Underground was brought to a halt on "amber alert" for a brief time, but most of it was reopened before evening rush hour. Andy Trotter, a senior official with the London Transport Police, said his force was adding sniffer dogs, foot patrols and searches of suspected bags and packages, but he acknowledged that there was no way to guarantee safety on the transit system.
"This is a major worry and a major concern, and no one can pretend any different," he told reporters.
Some analysts said the fact that the attackers had failed to kill people suggested that they were amateurs lacking the skills of those behind the July 7 attacks, who investigators believe may have had help from al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan.
"It's too soon to be sure, but I'd say this group might turn out to have links to our friends from two weeks ago but not driven by the same plotters," said Michael Clarke, a terrorism expert at King's College London. "The guys behind July 7 were pretty good. And the failure of today's people to kill a lot of people is the sort of mistake they wouldn't have made."
Still, Clarke said, the attacks had proved successful in shaking the city's confidence by reminding Londoners how vulnerable they remain. "The anecdotal evidence of panic at Warren Street suggests people are far less sanguine than two weeks ago," he said. "And that's exactly what the terrorist wants. He wants to create a sense it can happen again at a time and place of his choosing."
"One is not enough," added Clarke, "but two is a pattern and three is a campaign."
Special correspondent Audrey Gillan in London and staff writer Robin Wright in Washington contributed to this report.
