9/11 mayor 'yards from London blast'

17:56pm 7th July 2005

 

Former Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani said the London terror strikes were an "eerie reminder" of 9/11 .

Mr Giuliani, who led the Big Apple through the devastating attacks, said he was only yards away from the first explosion this morning, while on a visit to London.

The politician said: "They are a very eerie reminder of September 11, I was right near Liverpool (St) station when the first bombing took place, so I could hear the sirens and then kept hearing reports of different bombing, in different parts of the city.

"As we were walking through and driving through the streets of the city, it was remarkable how the people of London responded calmly and bravely."

He said the hearts of New Yorkers would go out to Londoners.

"We feel a tremendous empathy with them. I think every New Yorker would join me in saying we feel we very much understand what you are going through," he said.

"This is a difficult time, but the people of London have responded in the exactly right way, with bravery and by moving forward.

"The emergency services people appear to have responded as if they have been very, very well trained and as if they were expecting attacks, they seem to be prepared for it.

"In a strange way a lot of our response to September 11 was modelling ourselves as much as we could on the people of London during the Second World War and the incredible way they withstood the attacks during the battle of Britain."

He said the "resolved and determined response" to the attacks undermined the terrorist attempts to provoke fear and panic.

Referring to strikes in London, New York and Madrid, he added: "All three cities are big, gigantic, open spaces.

"They have democracy and freedom of movement, just by that very nature the number of targets is endless.

"No matter how good your policing, and the policing in London is right at the very top, one of the very, very best, unfortunately these people can try to figure out the places where people aren't concentrating, aren't looking."

The politician, who stepped down as mayor in December 2001, said: "It's hard to say how many (attacks) have been prevented that could have taken place up until this point."

 

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