London Blasts: Sofia and Ben are safe

I’ve had a number of emails from people checking that Sofia and I are ok – we are.

I’m safe at home and Sofia is safe in her office. She’s near Bank tube, which is in the middle of it – but she’s safe. She was in the Central Line tunnel near Liverpool Street station when it happened, but fortunately for us that was not the tube line the incident occurred on.

Form the view from my window here in Bethnal Green I can see Liverpool Street area, including the ‘London Gherkin’. There are a number of helicopters buzzing around, including the “Sky News ‘Coptor” which is beaming pictures back from the scene and I’m watching on TV. I can also see that the London Air Ambulance helicopter, which is based near by to me at the Royal London, has been ferrying casualties away from the scene. UPDATE: It turns out the air ambulance was used to ferry doctors to each of the scenes, in addition to carrying patients back.

I heard about this just after 9am, when it was announced there had been “power surges”, however the timing of this – both the day after the London Olympics announcement and also with the G8 conference – it immediately seemed to me that this could be a terrorist attack.

I hope this is it, and there will be no more incidents – but clearly that’s not a certainty yet.

It’s a very sad day for London, for peace and my thoughts are with those who are injured and the families of those who have sadly died.

For my work colleagues: I’m not VPN’ing into the BBC in order to ensure those resources are available for those who need to file copy and report on today’s events. Please email via my personal address.