Defiant Londoners refusing to be cowed after a nail bomb failed to detonate on a packed tube train are determined to stay calm and carry on.
Despite ‘critical’ terror threat level being declared, the capital is returning to normality in the wake of the cowardly attack at Parsons Green.
People were pictured this morning leaving going to and from the station, which re-opened early this morning.
The Mayor of London said in a statement: ‘Our city utterly condemns the hideous individuals who attempt to use terror to harm us and destroy our way of life.
A return to normality: A woman checks her phone this morning on a tube train at Parsons Green undergrounds station
‘As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism.
‘I am in close contact with the Metropolitan Police, Transport for London, Government and other emergency services who are responding at the scene and leading the investigation.’
Messages of defiance and also hope have captured the city’s unbreakable spirit are being shared across social media.
One information board at an underground station read: ‘We are London. London be together, hold hands and stand up tall; an attack on any one of us is an attack on us all; keep faith in each other.
‘We are London, and shall not fall.’
Messages of defiance and also hope have captured the city’s unbreakable spirit are being shared across social media
The scene unfolding elsewhere throughout the capital was one of normality, as Londoners go about their business as usual this weekend
Police Community Support Officer Craig Blacha shared a cropped version of a fake tube sign that was shared across social media in the wake of the Westminster attack in
Emma Spear, a barista at the District cafe just below the railway bridge, witnessed the stampede out of the station.
She said:’It was a big panic then people running away.’
‘We stayed open until about 8.20 but it was probably closer to 9am when they made us leave (evacuate).
‘We saw a lot of the first people that came through.
‘A few people came in [to the cafe] more so they could figure out what was going on I think.’
Ms Spear said the cafe had offered tea and water to police and emergency services after the area had been cleared.
A police presence remains around the scene of the attack: People were pictured this morning leaving going to and from the station, which re-opened early this morning
Just 24 hours after the failed ‘bucket bomb’ attack that injured 29 – including a young boy – and passengers are pictured waiting for a train this morning
An information board with
‘We never saw any of the seriously injured. The first responders took care of them immediately.
‘Within five minutes the whole area was full of people who had been on the train and on the platform.
‘The rapid response units were here really quickly. They cleared the area then they were here to carry out the investigation.’
When asked if the experience had been frightening, she said: ‘It was more a moment of a panic than anything else. We just didn’t know what was going on and everyone was saying different things.’
Stephan Pillinger, the owner of District cafe, said he had no concerns about opening on Saturday.
‘You just carry on, life goes on fortunately, you’ve just got to carry on too,’ he said.
It is believed the bomb was left on the busy district line train from Wimbledon this morning before the bomber escaped