Four British Islamist extremists detonated homemade explosives across London's transport network on the morning of July 7, 2005, striking three Underground trains near Liverpool Street, Edgware Road, and King's Cross within minutes of each other, followed by a bus bombing in Tavistock Square roughly an hour later. The coordinated attack killed 52 people and the four bombers, making it Britain's deadliest terrorist attack, and occurred the day after London had been awarded the 2012 Olympic Games.
The bombers, three of British Pakistani descent and one Jamaican-born convert, traveled together from Luton to King's Cross station that morning carrying rucksacks packed with homemade explosives. At 8:50 AM, three devices detonated almost simultaneously on Underground trains, one between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, another at Edgware Road, and a third on a Piccadilly line train just after it left King's Cross station, trapping victims in smoke-filled tunnels deep underground.
The fourth bomber, Hasib Hussain, had apparently intended to strike another Underground train but found the system shut down after the initial explosions. He instead boarded the number 30 double-decker bus, detonating his device in Tavistock Square at 9:47 AM, tearing the roof off the bus in front of horrified onlookers near the British Medical Association headquarters.
The attacks came less than 24 hours after London had jubilantly celebrated winning the bid to host the 2012 Olympics, a whiplash the city has never forgotten. Emergency responders, many of them ordinary commuters and Underground staff, performed remarkable acts of courage in the smoke-choked tunnels. Investigators later determined the bombers had no direct al-Qaeda operational control but had been inspired and loosely trained through connections to jihadist networks in Pakistan.