What Happened in the 7/7 London Bombings? A Look Back at the Aftermath of One of the Deadliest Terrorist Attacks in British History

Twenty years ago, four suicide bombers attacked London’s transit system and killed over 50 people. 

The tragedy sent the city into chaos and sparked a nationwide investigation. Police later learned that the four bombers had died in the explosion and were young men who had been radicalized by extremist ideology.

Director Liza Williams told The Independent that she interviewed over 750 people, including police, the prime minister, survivors and people who knew the bombers, for her four-part Netflix docuseries Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers. 

“This was a huge national trauma,” Williams told the outlet in July 2025, “but I hope people will watch it and realise how important it is not to let events divide us.”

Released in July 2025, the series chronicles the attack and the aftermath of what the BBC called the “worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil.” 

Here’s everything to know about the real 7/7 bombing chronicled in Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers.

What were the 7/7 bombings? 

On July 7, 2005, four bombs went off in four different places within London’s transport network, per the British Transport Police (BTP). 

Three exploded at 8:50 a.m., on trains running along the London Underground (also known as the Tube) near the Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations. The fourth was detonated nearly an hour later on a bus close to BTP’s headquarters at the time in Tavistock Square. 

British Prime Minister Tony Blair quickly declared that the “barbaric” blasts were likely a terrorist attack, per CNN. Just two weeks later, on July 21, police reported that another terrorist attack consisting of four more bombs had failed to detonate across different parts of London.

How many people were killed in the 7/7 bombings?

A total of 52 people died in the 7/7 bombings, and over 770 people were injured, according to BPT. 

Six people were killed in the explosion at Edgware Road station, and 13 died when a bus was bombed in Tavistock Square. The deadliest attack occurred between King’s Cross and Russell Square, where 26 lives were lost.

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Paralympic athlete Martine Wiltshire was on the train during the Aldgate explosion, which killed seven people. She lost both legs in the attack, and recalled seeing “a white light” and feeling “thrown from side to side” in her 2011 inquest testimony, per BBC.

Who were the 7/7 bombers?

Four different suicide bombers were responsible for the killings: Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Germaine Lindsay, 19. All four men, who died in the explosions, had ties to extremist groups. Khan left a video detailing his motivations and glorifying al-Qaida, The Guardian reported in September 2005. 

A youth worker interviewed in Attack on London named Mohammad told The Independent in July 2025 that he met Tanweer years prior to the attack and tried to steer him away from “a conservative, backward interpretation of Islam.”

“He was a good kid … but when his father asked me ‘save my son,’ I was really shocked,” Mohammed told the outlet. “I sometimes wonder if I’d spent more time there, shown more personal vulnerability, I could have changed his mind.”

Two weeks after the attack, Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was pinned down and shot several times by police after they wrongly believed he was one of the bombers. His death was the subject of the 2025 docuseries Suspect: The Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes, per The Independent.  

Was anyone arrested for the 7/7 bombings?

The four 7/7 bombers died in the explosions. Khan, Tanweer and Lindsay died after detonating their bombs on the Underground, and Hussain was killed after he set off the explosion on the bus.

However, several arrests were made in connection with the failed bombings on July 21 (also known as the 21/7 attacks). In 2007, Ramzi Mohammed, Muktar Said Ibrahim and Yassin Omar were found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder for their botched bombing weeks after the 7/7 attack.

“If the detonators had been slightly more powerful or the hydrogen peroxide slightly more concentrated, then each bomb would have exploded,” the judge said at their trial, BBC reported. 

The group targeted three Tube trains and a bus, like the 7/7 attack, but the bombs did not explode. A massive manhunt ensued, and the three men were arrested just a week later.  They were sentenced to a minimum of 40 years in prison.

Another man, Ismail Abdulrahman, was convicted the following year for assisting one of the 21/7 perpetrators and failing to disclose information to police. He was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison, but it was later reduced to eight.