‘WE WON’T BE COWED’:
Post reporter on spot in capital targeted for terror Shell-shocked workers cope with another attack
WE FIRST realised something was very wrong at around 2.45pm when the sirens started up outside.
Ambulances and police cars sped down Victoria Street, right by The Yorkshire Post city office, which is half a mile from the Houses of Parliament.
Rumours abounded. Twitter was the main source of information along with the graphic photos that quickly get taken down and never make it on to mainstream media.
Shell-shocked colleagues in our office building returned from meetings. Their tube trains had been stopped at Westminster station. No-one was allowed off as the station had been closed.
People made room as bemused passengers were ushered on to the train. After the station was cleared of its last passengers, later tube trains paused at the deserted station, but no-one was allowed on or off.
Colleagues said that everyone was calm, everyone was silent. Londoners and tourists united in disbelief at the atrocities that had taken place right above their heads just hours before.
There were two choices for us: Get swept away with the horror that London had once again been attacked or get on with it, blitz spirit firmly in place.
People were resigned, calm and it was heads down as we continued to work as normal while closely keeping an eye on events.
People kept slipping out with their mobiles into stairwells and corridors as loved ones messaged them to check they were safe. With our office being so close to the attack, their worry was understandable. As the news played out, some people were given permission to leave early.
The rest of us stayed on, heads down, fingers on keyboards.
At Victoria station the police armed presence was very much in evidence by 6pm. I saw 10 pairs of armed police patrolling the concourse, helping passengers out. It was a reassuring presence. It felt like we hadn’t been abandoned.
Commuters quietly boarded their trains. It was London at its most courteous. After the 7/7 atrocity there is a weary resignation that London will always be a target.
Yesterday’s incident appears to be a lone attacker, but many of us are casting our minds back 12 years ago when the London tube and bus bombings wreaked havoc across the capital.
London went into meltdown. We couldn’t get home from work. People were out on the streets helping each other.
I remember it like it was yesterday. Two bombs had gone off on the London Underground. We had no idea if more would follow. An hour later a bus would be blown up in Tavistock Square. When you live through it, it never leaves you.
Yet the very next day we all boarded our tube trains once again. Today we will do the same again. This is a terrible tragedy for the people caught up in this latest atrocity, but London will not be cowed.