Mercy Crews’ Gruesome Search for Bodies

POLICE and firefighters crawled through rats and body parts yesterday as they battled to recover the victims of the worst of the London bombings.

In 100-degree heat and with the stench of death everywhere, workers began the unimaginable task of removing the remains of murdered commuters from an Underground tunnel 150feet below Russell Square.

At their side, police forensics experts picked over the gruesome crime scene, looking for the tiny clues they need to nail the al- Qaeda murderers.

Police revealed yesterday that more than 50 people died in the worst attacks on London since World War II. Three tube trains and a double-decker bus were blown up in a co-ordinated assault.

At least 21 were slaughtered in the Russell Square tunnel when a bomb ripped through a tube train crammed with morning rush-hour commuters.

Most of the dead are still in the tunnel. The scene is so chaotic and horrific that police cannot say for certain exactly how many sets of remains there are

Yesterday, cops and firemen battled their way 500 yards along the cramped tunnel to the first carriage of the train, where the bomb exploded.

By examining the ‘burn patterns’ left by the blast, fire brigade experts established that the bomb was on the floor beside a set of doors when it exploded.

The Piccadilly Line train was so utterly wrecked that it cannot be dragged out of the tunnel.

It will have to be dismantled and brought to the surface piece by piece.

The tunnel itself was damaged so severely that engineers have had to shore it up to stop it collapsing. The workers also face the possible risk of breathing harmful asbestos.

Deputy Chief Constable Andy Trotter,of British Transport Police, warned that work in the tunnel could take days to complete.

He said: ‘These are difficult, extremely difficult conditions.

‘There are vermin, there are the remains of people’s loved ones, there are the remnants of fumes from the explosion. And as anyone who has worked in a mine will know, there is also intolerable heat.

‘The officers are working in very confined spaces. It is very claustrophobic and very distressing.

‘This is a very deep tube line. And the scene is quite a way from Russell Square, which makes it very difficult indeed to get to.

‘It will take some time to remove the people down there.

‘There are no living people. The challenge is now to remove the dead.’

Firefighters with specialist experience of identifying bodies were working with police at the scene.

Some had been sent to Asia after the Boxing Day tsunami to help return victims to their families.

Max Hood, assistant commissioner of the London Fire Brigade, said: ‘We had officers at the tsunami disaster and they are now helping at Russell Square.

‘We have officers at each of the three tube sites but we are concentrating on the Piccadilly Line. We have men with breathing apparatus there.’

Police are trying to work out how the bomb was detonated. The tunnel is so deep that it would have been difficult for the terrorists to set the device off using a mobile phone.

Mr Trotter said: ‘There are parts of the tube system where you can get a signal.

‘But there are other parts, particularly the deep tube, where it is most unlikely.’

As the harrowing work went on underground, friends and relatives of the dead and missing laid scores of floral tributes outside King’s Cross Station.

The card on one bouquet used the lyrics of the Ralph McTell song Streets of London to send a message to the murderers.

It read: ‘So you think you can defeat us? ‘Let me take you through the streets of London and I’ll show you something that will make you change your mind.’

The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian Blair, said more than 50 people died in Thursday’s blasts.

As well as the victims in the Russell Square tunnel, 13 people were yesterday confirmed to have died in the bus blast at nearby Tavistock Square.

Seven commuters died in a tube train at Liverpool Street and seven more lost their lives on a train near Edgware Road.

Another person died in hospital on Thursday night, taking the total of confirmed dead to 49.

Mr Blair said the toll was certain to rise above 50 as the Russell Square bodies were identified.

More than 700 people were injured, including citizens of Australia, China, Poland,Portugal and Sierra Leone.

Mr Blair said it had all the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda attack.

The head of the Met’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, Andy Hayman, said the four bombs weighed less than 10lbs each.

He said each device would have fitted comfortably into a backpack.

Londoners stuck two fingers up tothe terrorists yesterday by carrying on with their normal routines.

And the Queen had her own words of defiance for the bombers.

As she visited the wounded at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, she said: ‘Those who perpetrate these brutal acts against innocent people should know that they will not change our way of life.’

Prince Charles and wife Camilla also comforted the injured on a visit to St Mary’s Hospital, near the scene of the Edgware Road blast.

Police across Britain launched their biggest-ever manhunt for the bombers.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said a claim of responsibility by a previously unknown group calling itself The Secret Organisation of al-Qaeda in Europe was being taken seriously.

A book of condolences for the dead will be opened at London’s City Hall on Monday and a memorial fund is being set up to help victims and their families