All 33 Penn-in-London students safe after attacks

LONDON -- All 33 students participating in the Penn-in-London summer program are safe following a series of explosions that rocked London during rush hour last Thursday morning.

English Department Undergraduate Chairman Michael Gamer, as well as professors David Wallace, Vicki Mahaffey, Rita Copeland and Ralph Rosen and his family -- all of whom were in London as part of the program --are safe as well.

Many of the students in the Penn-in-London program were informed of the bombings during class in the common room at 21 Pembridge Gardens in Notting Hill, the home of 29 of the 33 students during the five-week program.

Lynne Alvarez, London office director of Penn's Institute for Study Abroad, interrupted class at about 10:30 a.m. and informed students that there had been a few bombs on the Underground, as the London subway system is called. Twenty minutes later, Alvarez returned to tell the students the situation was more serious than originally thought.

The bombings targeted the London transportation system; explosions left a bus and three Underground cars mangled. The latest information puts the death toll at 52, but that number will likely rise as police forces continue to remove bodies at the sites of the explosions.

At least 700 people were injured in the attacks, about 100 of whom were held overnight in hospitals.

Alvarez immediately made sure the 80 students in London with the ISA were all right. She then helped to track down all of the Penn-in-London students.

"I was very worried about all of" the students on the Penn-in-London program, Alvarez said. They "don't have the infrastructure with just three professors who are also visiting."

The first device was detonated at 8:51 a.m. on a train running between the Aldgate and Liverpool Street stations. However, it took longer for British police to realize that the problems were being caused by a terrorist attack. Originally, it was believed the Underground had suffered a massive power failure, and passengers were directed to buses.

Mahaffey was preparing to come to class when she heard about the bombings.

"I got a call from the States asking me if I was OK, and I said, 'Why wouldn't I be?'" she said. Mahaffey was then worried about making sure all students were out of harm's way. She immediately set out on the hour-long walk to Notting Hill.

Penn Summer Study Abroad Coordinator Elizabeth Sachs described how she heard of the attacks.

"I happened to be at that time in Israel, so I heard about it before the [summer abroad] office [in Philadelphia] woke up," she said over the phone.

Sachs quickly got in touch with Gamer and Alvarez, who were able to confirm the whereabouts of every person on the program, with one exception -- College junior Leslie Reich, who had been in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, and in Madrid during the train bombings in March 2004 that killed 190 people.

At 9:15 a.m., Reich had left Pembridge Gardens, and when she arrived at the Notting Hill Gate Tube station, she was told there were electrical problems. Not wanting to abandon her plan to visit Madame Tussaud's wax museum and the London Planetarium, Reich hailed a taxi and went on her way.

When she finally left the connected buildings later that day, she noticed something was unusual.

"There were more people on the street than normal," she said. "But I just assumed that the [subway] was down and went to wait for the bus."

When the bus did not arrive, Reich tried to hail a cab. When that failed, she walked into a bookstore, mapped her way home and began the nearly hour-long trek from Regents Park to Notting Hill. It was not until she was just blocks from the residence that Reich realized there had been a terrorist attack.

"Having been in three cities for three different attacks makes it more real and makes the problem harder to ignore," Reich said. "It's an uneasy thought, but this is the society we live in and will continue to live in until conflicts are somehow resolved."

Once Reich was found safe, John Krebs, associate director of summer sessions, sent an e-mail to the parents of all students on the program assuring them that everyone was safe. Organizers phoned the parents as well.

"The vast majority of parents that we spoke with did not want to alter the program or close it early," Krebs said. He noted one father who felt the bombings had added a dimension to the experience that, while tragic, was also extremely important.

College senior Ashley Williams had boarded a train barely an hour before a blast ripped apart a subway car at that station.

Williams is part of a group of four students in the Penn-in-London program who are living in an apartment at the intersection of Harrowby and Brendan streets. The nearest Underground station to that intersection was the site of a blast that killed at least seven people.

"At first it's obviously a little scary," Williams said of the prospect of being on the fated train. "But then you just have to tell yourself, 'Don't speculate, don't worry about the bad things that could havehappened.'"

In an e-mail to friends, Mahaffey wondered why the terrorists chose to attack the common populace.

"What were they thinking? This wasn't an attack on the people who run the government or the economy; it was an attack on the 'littler people' who go to work at rush hour -- some white-collar, but many working class, many immigrant. The targets weren't the houses of Parliament. ... No royal palaces, no No. 10 Downing Street."

Jeff Lu, a College junior, took the Underground just a few days after the attack and found himself looking around the car the entire trip for anything suspicious. When a man with a beard dropped a small bag by the door, the thoughts in Lu's head began to run wild, but the incident turned out to be an innocent accident.

"Obviously it's always in the back of your head that something can happen, but I'm pretty sure I'll be taking [the Underground] again," Lu said.

Most students have continued to use the public transportation system, although some have shunned it, at least for the moment, in favor of taxis.

"It's hard to tell people 'Don't be scared,' when 50 people just died," Williams said. "But it's harder to live scared."

On Tuesday, British officials released the names of four suspects in the attacks: Shahzad Tanweer, 22, of Leeds; Hasib Hussain, 18, also from Leeds, Rashid Facha, in his 20s, and Jacksey Fiaz, about 35. At least three are believed to have been British-born with Pakistani ancestry. Officials believe all of the suspects may have been killed in the explosions.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.