As the evening continues many people like us will hear from friends and relatives that they had been mildly concerned about. Friends will check in with each other. I know that at least one of my readers is still trying to trace family in London.
If you are reading this, live in London and havent rung your friends or family since the bombings please ring them- they might be worrying even though you live nowhere near the sites of these bombs. If you need to get ahold of someones phone number, then the BT has an online phone book for the UK
If calling your loved ones doesnt work, then there is a helpline to trace your missing family from Scotland Yard on 0870 156 6344 This has so far had 100,000 calls. Please use it only after trying other means to contact friends or family.
The Police have also issued an anti-terrorism number and ask people to call 0800 789 321 if they have any suspcions about lodgers, neighbours, people who have hired lock-ups, or any other information that may help.
As a family we think that all our friends and family are safe, although we havent spoken to everyone we know in london yet. One friend we’d been unable to reach has now reported she is safe but that she had a friend who was on a train with a bomb and had to walk past bodies. But, already there are those who have gone a step further and traced their loved ones as not just uncontactable but missing and believed to have been in the area.
Families are desparate to hear from these people. Perhaps blogs can help. Credible lists have been published on news websites. If you know any of these people are safe, please let the authorities know.
The following list is from The Times, which has full details of why relatives are concerned about these people: Philip Russell, Neetu Jain, Miriam Hyman, Laura Webb, Jamie Gordon, Michael Matsushita, Monika Suchocka, Anthony Fataji Williams, James Mayes, Richard Ellery, Michelle Outto, Phil Beer
The Guardian also has many of these names and adds the following- Shahera Akther Islam, Rachelle Yuen, Slimane Ihab
The BBC and CNN both also list some of these names. The ITN site has a blank page that they say will have photos of the missing added. If you have information on any of these people you pass it on to the helpline I mentioned earlier. Please do not use this on any blog as a means of reaching the relatives of these people- they will almost certainly not be reading it.
Update 10/7/05
There is another list of missing online which I cannot verify the accuracy of. It remains the case that the best source of information is the helpline number. As far as I can tell none of the people in this list have so far subsequently been found.
The ITN page now has photos of the missing- if you have seen any of them do let the authorities know.
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