Names of 7/7 London bombings victims read out at 20th anniversary 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.


 


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".

The Prince of Wales attended a memorial service in Hyde Park, where he laid flowers and spoke to several people there, including Ms Stober.





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