London 7/7 attack anniversary marked by memorial service

The names of the 52 people killed in London’s 7/7 bombings were read out at a memorial service at St Paul’s Cathedral 20 years since the attacks.

Saba Edwards, the daughter of Behnaz Mozakka who died when one of the bombs detonated on the London Underground, began to cry as she read out her mother’s name among the list of victims.

Thelma Stober, who was injured in the attack, joined her in reading out the names as thousands of white petals were dropped from the cathedral’s ceiling.

Families and survivors were joined by members of the Royal Family, the prime minister and emergency services workers to mark the attack on three underground trains and a bus, which also injured more than 700 people.

Dean Andrew Tremlett said the service marked the “solemn anniversary of an act of terror inflicted on our city”.

“We give thanks for the spirit of this city: its openness, its endurance, and its steadfast refusal to let the hatred prevail.”

A series of commemorative events are being held in the capital on Monday to remember the victims of the bombings carried out by Islamist extremists.

The suicide attacks in central London saw four bombs detonated on 7 July 2005, causing terrible casualties during the capital’s rush hour.

Saba Edwards’s mother Behnaz was heading to Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital when she boarded a Piccadilly Line Tube train.

Speaking about her grief at the inquest five years after her mother’s death, she said her family was “forced” to sell their home “because the reality of living there without her was too painful to cope with”.

Ms Stober was on the underground at Aldgate station when one of the bombs was detonated. The blast threw her onto the tracks, leaving her partly underneath the train with a piece of the door impaled in her right thigh and her left foot twisted.

When she saw rescuers in yellow and orange jackets approaching, she shouted: “Help me, help me, I’m alive. I don’t want to die.”

“If I could have amnesia permanently to eliminate everything about the incidents, I would,” she told the BBC.

The National Service of Commemoration saw emergency services staff carry four candles through the cathedral, representing the locations devastated by the bombings: Russell Square, Aldgate, Edgware Road and Tavistock Square.

Families and first responders then gave readings about each location, including George Psaradakis – who was driving the number 30 bus that was blown apart in Tavistock Square, killing 13 people.

Graham Foulkes, whose son David Foulkes was killed on the tube at Edgware Road, also addressed the congregation.

He said: “The good which is in Londoners and the countless visitors whom they host at any given moment is not erased by hatred or threat, but rather is fostered to produce a harvest of hope for each generation.”

The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh attended the service on behalf of King Charles, who had called on people to stand united “against those who would seek to divide us” in a message marking the anniversary of the “senseless act of evil”.

Events were also held at the sites of the bombings earlier on Monday.

At Russell Square – where half of all those killed that day lost their lives – floral tributes were laid, while a minute’s silence was held at Edgware Road station to mark the first attack at 08:49 BST.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan laid wreaths at Hyde Park’s 7/7 memorial to mark the time the first bomb exploded.

Victims’ families and emergency service staff later held a minute’s silence at Tavistock Square, where the fourth and final bomb exploded at 09:48.

Sir Keir said the country would unite to remember the lives lost in the suicide attacks “and all those whose lives were changed forever”.

He added: “Those who tried to divide us failed. We stood together then, and we stand together now – against hate and for the values that define us of freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”

King Charles issued a message calling for a “spirit of unity” on the anniversary, and said the attacks had shown the importance of “building a society where people of all faiths and backgrounds can live together with mutual respect and understanding”.

He said his “special prayers remain with all those whose lives were forever changed on that terrible summer’s day”, including those who carried the “physical and psychological scars”.

He praised those who helped with the rescue and the “extraordinary courage and compassion that emerged from the darkness of that day”.

King Charles has been a dedicated supporter of building bridges between different faiths and encouraging tolerance and respect between religions.

“While the horrors will never be forgotten, we may take comfort from the way such events rally communities together in solidarity, solace and determination,” he said.

“It is this spirit of unity that has helped London, and our nation, to heal.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said the attacks were “no less shocking” 20 years later and that the courage of emergency services and “ordinary Londoners” on that day “continues to inspire us”.

Also paying tribute, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said “we stand with those who carry the pain of that day, the families, friends and colleagues of those who never came home”.