LONDON - A wave of deadly explosions sprayed carnage in the heart of London on Thursday, killing more than 33 people, injuring hundreds of others and reinforcing the spectre of global terrorism in a city celebrating its Olympic Games victory and as G8 leaders met in Scotland.
The force of the blasts left body parts strewn across the street and over underground railway tracks. Stunned survivors spoke of terror and confusion.
Police said 33 people were confirmed killed in explosions on the capital's underground network, but that there were also an unknown number of dead after another blast on a bus that had its roof ripped off.
At least 340 other people were injured in what Prime Minister Tonu Blair described as a "terrorist attacks" a day after London won its bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
A previously unknown group which calls itself the Organisation of Al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe claimed the blasts and threatened similar attacks against Italy, Denmark and other "Crusader" states with troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"It's reasonably clear that this is a series of terrorist attacks" intended to coincide with the summit of the world's eight leading powers, a sombre Blair said before cutting short his stay at the summit and flying back to London.
US President George W. Bush vowed the war on terrorism would continue until "an ideology of hate" had been overcome.
"They have such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks. The war on terrorism is on," Bush told reporters at Gleneagles, Scotland, which was set to continue despite the blasts.
Other G8 leaders
The United States raised its threat level for mass transit and train systems to code orange or "high", Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said.
NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer called an extraordinary meeting of the body's policy-making North Atlantic Council for Friday to discuss to discuss possible "measures" that could be taken, a spokesman said.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, NATO invoked Article Five of its charter, which says that an attack on one member country is deemed an attack against all member countries.
In a statement, the G8 leaders said the bombings were "not an attack on one nation, but on all nations and on civilised people everywhere."
London's deputy police chief Brian Paddick said seven people were killed in a first explosion in an underground railway tunnel near Moorgate on the edge of London's financial district, 21 in a second near King's Cross and another five at Edgware Road station in west London.
An unknown number of people also died in the bus blast near Russell Square, he told a news conference.
An ambulance service official said that 345 people were injured, 45 of them seriously.
In Paris, a senior French official speaking under cover of anonymity, said he had been told that the death toll was between 45 and 50 people and that up to 1,000 had been injured.
Paddick said it was not clear if the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers or if the bombs were left in the Underground system and the bus.
"We are treating this as a terrorist incident. We are keeping an open mind as to who is responsible," he said, adding that police have received no claims of responsibility and had received no warnings prior to the blasts.
London Underground officials confirmed the entire underground and bus network had been suspended, and would be seriously affected for some time.
The attacks triggered immediate global security fears, and London and Paris stock markets began to tumble.
Security was stepped up in New York and Washington, still jittery after the September 2001 attacks on the United States by the Al-Qaeda terror network, while the nationwide US rail system, Amtrak, also said it raised its security alert level.
Governments across Europe beefed up security in airports, rail stations and public transport systems.
Meanwhile, in Singapore, the chief executive of London's victorious 2012 Games bid, Keith Mills, said Olympic celebrations would be put on hold.
"It's terribly unfortunate in terms of timing and clearly all our celebrations of the result yesterday will have to be put on hold," Mills said.
France, which lost out to Britain in the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, raised its anti-terror alert to red, the second highest rating, while Italy convened a meeting of top police and anti-terrorism chiefs in Rome.
In Spain, the attacks recalled that country's worst terrorist attack on March 11, 2004, in which 191 were killed and 1,900 in a series of train bombings in Madrid blamed on Al-Qaeda.
In a statement posted on the Internet, but which could not be authenticated, the Organisation of Al-Qaeda Jihad in Europe said: "Heroic mujahedins carried out a sacred attack in London, and here is Britain burning in fear, terror and fright in the north, south, east and west."
The group said the attacks were "in response to the massacres carried out by Britain in Iraq and Afghanistan."
"We have repeatedly warned the government and people of Britain, and we have now fulfilled our promise and have carried out a sacred military attack in Britain," it said.
In London, thousands of people poured into the streets from underground stations, some covered in blood and soot, some in tears, many visibly shocked.
"There was a loud bang and the train ground to a halt. People started panicking, screaming and crying as smoke came into the carriage," said Arash Kazerouni, 22, who had been travelling from Liverpool Street, which serves the main financial district.
"I saw three bodies on the track," said another witness, Scott Wenbournen, at Aldgate station. "I couldn't look, it was so horrific.
"I think one was moving but I'm not too sure. There were also, I think, some bodies in the carriage. Some were moving but I couldn't really look. No one was attending to them."
The roof of the double-decker bus was torn off by the force of one blast.
"It was terrible. The bus went to pieces. There were so many bodies on the floor," said Ayobami Bello, 46, a security guard at the nearby London School of Tropical Hygiene and Medicine.
"The back was completely gone, it was blown off completely and a dead body was hanging out and there were dead bodies on the road, it was a horrible thing," said Bello, adding that other bodies sat slumped in their bus seats, some with arms and legs missing.

07/07/2005 16:28 GMT