London bombings & how I found out abt it..

.. 7th July 2005 ..

I was still in the office that night (the afternoon the bombings took place in London) when a colleague of mine dropped by to visit me in my new room. He then broke the news to me about the bombings which had occurred in London. At the point in time, he had said that the news were still preliminary.

My first thoughts drifted away to friends who were still in London. I quickly text-ed my friends in London and they replied almost immediately. They were safe. Newspaper reports for the past few days had revealed that no Malaysians (so far) had been victims of the bombings.

What freaked me out even more was the fact that this incident took place in central London where I had stayed exactly a year ago. Last year, I had stayed along Grays Inn Road which was located very very near to Kings Cross and Russell Square tube station. It was only a 5 minutes walk away. I recognised the picture which was published in the Star yesterday, taken at Tavistock Square. It almost seem unbelievable that something like this would have happened without any warning at all.

A friend of mine emailed me the following day (god bless that she's in safe hands)*:

* parts of the email has been edited for publication purposes.


Hey Dearie,

As I told you,I was on my way to Nottingham yesterday.I was in St Pancres station when the bomb in Kings Cross went off. We were told sternly to 'Get off the train'! only to be told the contrary a few seconds later to 'Get back on the train. We need to evacuate the station right now'!

Hence, the train took off 2 minutes after the blast but 20 minutes ahead of schedule. The fact that I could have been at Kings Cross sends a chill through my spine.

When I read the news I always thought that it could never happen to me but the incident reminded me that God can take me any time at any place without any warning! It never happened in 142 years but it almost happened to me. The urgency to spread God's Word became more apparent. I saw people crying and a woman screaming in Nottingham after they received bad news over the phone. There were sirens all night in Nottingham due to paranoid reports of suspicious packages.

As I took a stroll through the streets of London tonight, I realised that the British were calm but not because the were comforted. The eerie silence tells painful story of London.

Human beings are really not in control of their destiny nor can they predict the downfall of their nation. It was only yesterday when my taxi driver screamed in joy as a result of the Olympics being held in his motherland and yet, I could not hear a single laughter or any sound of vibrant celebration in their city. Pride, entertainment and sports become so insignificant when loved ones are lost.

This catastrophe killed at least 50 people and injured 700 people.