LONDON \u2014 King Charles III led commemorations Monday on the 20th anniversary of the 2005 London transit bombings, the deadliest attack on the British capital since World War II.<\/p>\n
Fifty-two people died and more than 700 were wounded when four British men inspired by al-Qaida blew themselves up on three subway trains and a bus during the morning rush hour on July 7, 2005. They were the first suicide bombings on European soil.<\/p>\n
Two weeks later, four other bombers attempted a similar attack, but their devices failed to explode. No one was hurt.<\/p>\n
The bombings remain seared into London\u2019s collective memory, and the anniversary will be marked with a ceremony at the 7\/7 memorial in Hyde Park and a service of commemoration at St. Paul\u2019s Cathedral.<\/p>\n
In a message, the king said his \u201cheartfelt thoughts and special prayers remain with all those whose lives were forever changed on that terrible summer\u2019s day.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the country could take heart from the bravery of the emergency services and others who responded to the attack, and \u201cthe countless stories of extraordinary courage and compassion that emerged from the darkness of that day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charles also hailed the \u201cspirit of unity that has helped London, and our nation, to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAs we remember those we lost, let us, therefore, use this 20th anniversary to reaffirm our commitment to building a society where people of all faiths and backgrounds can live together with mutual respect and understanding, always standing firm against those who would seek to divide us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said July 7, 2005 was one of Britain\u2019s \u201cdarkest days.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said that 20 years on, \u201cIslamist extremist terrorism remains the greatest threat\u201d to national security \u201cfollowed by extreme right-wing terrorism.”<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we also face hybrid threats to our national security from hostile states, serious organized crime, cyber criminals, those threatening our border security and a troubling rise in violence-fixated individuals radicalized online,\u201d she wrote in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, adding that the government would \u201crelentlessly confront and counter threats to our national security.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LONDON \u2014 King Charles III led commemorations Monday on the 20th anniversary of the 2005 London transit bombings,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,188,393,4884,257,16,15,34242],"class_list":{"0":"post-244248","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-london","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114809800193100467","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}