By KUNA,
London : Commuters and survivors stood shoulder to shoulder with the families of victims Monday to mark the third anniversary of the London transport bombings.
Hundreds of people crowded into King’s Cross station, central London, to remember the 52 innocent people who were killed when four blasts ripped through London’s public transport network.
London mayor Boris Johnson joined Miss Tessa Jowell, the Governments Minister for London, and transport chiefs at the ceremony.
They laid flowers outside the station at 8.50am, the time when the first three bombs went off.
The pavements around King’s Cross, from where the four suicide bombers set off on their terror campaign, were crammed with commuters as passers-by stopped to pay their respects.
Relatives of victims and survivors also made personal pilgrimages to the sites of the four blasts, Russell Square, Aldgate and Edgware Road Tube stations, and Tavistock Square, where a bus was blown up.
Miss Jowell said “People have shown great courage in the progress they have made in moving forward with their lives since the atrocities of three years ago”. Bombers Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Germaine Lindsay, 19 and Hasib Mir Hussain, 18, all lived in West Yorkshire, northern England.
They were born and raised in this country, mainly of Pakistani origin.
More than 700 people were injured in the blasts and concern has been raised that 73 compensation claims have yet to be paid out.
Johnson has written to Miss Jowell asking the Government to ensure the backlog is dealt with immediately.
The UK Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority said 7.5 million pounds had been paid to victims and relatives.
A spokesman said “While we aimed to resolve all these applications as soon as possible, in some cases we still need information from third parties, for example, the police, medical specialists and employers.”