Victims of London bombings honoured at service

LONDON - Poignant tributes were paid to the victims of London's July suicide bombings with a memorial service for the 52 people killed in the train and bus blasts.

Almost four months afterwards, the scars are raw as ever with some families of the victims feeling sidelined, even divided, as they try to come to terms with their grief.

But others felt the service attended by 2,300 people at St Paul's Cathedral offered a chance for closure, a moment to heal wounds after the attacks by Islamist militants.

Survivors flung their arms around each other in emotional reunions. Relatives, heads bowed in grief, pinned photos of victims to their jackets. Firemen and ambulance crews remembered those they fought to save.

Despite media speculation, relatives of the four suicide bombers were not invited.

Ruby Grey, whose father was killed by one of the train bombs, was asked to present a posy to the Queen. But her 11-year-old brother Adam said he did not want to attend.

"He is very angry with the bombers but he also blames the (Iraq) war and he blames the government. He doesn't want to be part of anything that has (Prime Minister) Tony Blair there," his mother Louise told London's Evening Standard.

Marie Fatayi-Williams, whose impassioned plea for an end to violence following her son's death was one of the most striking images after the carnage, felt the families of the victims were being overlooked.

"It's as if you are just a number, you do not count," she said.

Saba Mozakka whose mother Behnaz was killed at King's Cross station, agreed, saying of the preparations for the memorial service: "It just feels we have been totally sidelined."

For Jennifer Adlam and Sapna Khimani, survivors of the bus blast, it was an emotion-charged day as they were reunited outside the cathedral.

"I wasn't sure if I wanted to come but I'm glad I did," Adlam told Reuters.

"I am coming to terms with it but I still can't take the bus," said Adlam, who still walks with a crutch.

"Hopefully there will be closure. The more I think about it, the more I get over it," Khimani told Reuters.

Peter Stallibrass, caught in one of the underground train blasts on his way to work, said: "Hopefully I can now put it behind me and get on with my life. Hopefully this is the time to start the healing."

Four giant candles, each bearing the name of one of the July 7 bomb sites, were lit at the service and placed on the altar.

In an impassioned sermon, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams condemned terrorism which "aims at death, not the death of anyone in particular, just death."

The spiritual head of the world's 77 million Anglicans said such attacks were so shocking because they were so arbitrary.

"It really doesn't matter who you are, what you have done or not done, what you think and believe, you are still a target just by being where you are at a particular time," he said.

- REUTERS