Queen and Moslem children join silence in Britain

By Anna Tomforde Jul 14, 2005, 12:43 GMT

London - Britain - from Queen Elizabeth II in London to a class of Moslem school children in Nottingham - fell silent for two minutes at noon Thursday in a poignant tribute to the 52 people known to have died in the suspected suicide bombings in London a week ago.

As Big Ben tolled noon, the Queen stood in silence on the forecourt in the main gateway of Buckingham Palace, watched by thousands of sightseers.

A few hundred metres away, Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of his cabinet paused on the lawns of Downing Street.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke was flanked outside the headquarters of Scotland Yard by London's police chief Ian Blair, who is leading the investigations into the bombings.

Silence was observed in the city's hospitals, where some 50 of the 700 people injured in the attacks were still being treated.

Silence fell on the Underground, buses and taxis stopped in the streets of the capital and nationwide shops, offices, factories, radio and TV studios went quiet.

But the most poignant pictures came from the scenes of the atrocities, the railway and tube stations of King's Cross, Liverpool Street, Edgware Road and Tavistock Square, where thousands stopped to bow their heads in silence.

Office workers streamed onto the streets and squares, as traffic noise stopped completely. Those who halted were of all faiths and races.

Several thousand people, including London mayor Ken Livingstone and members of London's Olympic team, stood in silence in Trafalgar Square.

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, paused in a garden during a visit to south Wales, in the west of the country.

Guards outside U.S. Air Force bases in Suffolk, northeast of London, stood to attention to observe the silence.

George Psaradakis, the driver of the No.30 bus blown up by the terrorists a week ago, kept the silence at his east London depot, flanked by colleagues.

"A week ago I took my No. 30 bus out from here on a journey which ended as a nightmare. What happened to my passengers and to passers-by was truly dreadful. I did what I could to help them," Psaradakis said in message he read out afterwards.

"As we stand together in silence, let us send a message to the terrorists - you will not defeat us and you will not break us," he added.

A school class from Nottingham showed children in traditional Moslem dress holding up a poster saying: "Not in my name."