Students in London safe after bombings

None of the four bomb blasts that killed about 50 people and injured more than 700 in London Thursday injured any IU students studying in Great Britain's capital city.\nAlthough the bombings destroyed three subways stations and a double-decker bus within the daily travel sphere of about 70 Hoosiers in London from various Indiana universities, all have contacted college personnel or their parents since the explosions rocked the city about 2 a.m. Indiana time Thursday. \n"We had a class at ten in the morning, so we walked up to the tube station around 9:20 a.m. and (London rescue personnel) were evacuating it," said junior Jonathan Tauber, one of about 40 IU students studying in London throughout the summer as part of the Institute for the International Education of Students. \n"We weren't sure what was going on -- all they said was that there was a power problem and all lines had to be shut down. The actual bombings were about five miles away but they shut down the entire line. We went back to the residence center and then saw on television what had happened."\nSusan Carty, associate director for the IU Office of Overseas Study, said all the students had been accounted for shortly after the attacks but two students were unaccounted for Thursday afternoon. Although the mobile phone systems in London neared their capacity after the bombings, she said many providers made special arrangements to give students access to phone lines and computers to allow them the opportunity to contact their families and friends in the U.S.\n"All of the students whom I've spoken with say that they are fine and being well cared for," Carty said.\nJunior Phillip Smith, whose parents flew to London Thursday morning, said the IU students he talked with experienced mixed feelings of fear, anxiety and frustration.\n"My personal view is that al-Qaida is responsible which makes me downright mad," he said. "I have been to many parts of London and noticed several mosques. However, these terrorists, I believe, are not true muslims."\nSimilar to other Hoosiers studying in London, senior Kathryn Dickerson is housed in Chelsea and attends school in Bloomsbury, only blocks away from the bombed-out Russel Square station. She said IES program officials contacted all of the students' parents "right away" to inform them of the evolving situation. \n"Our program has an emergency protocol that they follow in situations like this and we have close contact with the U.S. embassy, so they asked us all to check in. It all happened very quickly and all students with my program were accounted for within a few hours," Dickerson said. "It seemed all too familiar for most of us after 9/11, but the death counts weren't nearly as high and the media is very different here so there weren't any speculations as to terrorist links right away."\nJunior Todd Miltenberger said the city's streets remained empty and quiet for most of the day until the evening rush hour home.\n"I was shocked because it happened so close to home -- one or two of the bombings happened very close to where we go to class," he said. "One of the tube lines bombed was the one I ride to class every day."\nTauber said London seemed "somber" into the afternoon, but by 4 p.m. the buses were running again and the streets were packed with people commuting home or grocery shopping.\n"It was almost as if nothing had happened (by) the afternoon. It is almost like they are a little more desensitized to (terrorist attacks) because they had the (Irish Republican Army) bombings a few years ago and tons of bombings during both the (World) wars," he said. "They definitely were upset about what happened, but they tried to go about their daily lives faster than I think Americans would"