Paddington Underground

Paddington Underground Station

Lat = 51 degrees, 30.9 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 10.6 minutes West

Two hours after the explosion, eight Scenes of crime officers reached the scene, they were wearing protective suits to ensure evidence was not contaminated by their DNA, fingerprints or clothing fibres; they had latex gloves taped to the sleeves of the suits to be extra secure.

They used masks over fears there could be toxic fumes left by the hydrogen peroxide explosives or even asbestos in the carriage, the final item was a hard hat to protect against falling debris.

The power to the track had been switched off by London transport and electric overhead lights were being installed overhead to assist with illumination of the carriages.

The tunnel vents had been shut down to stop tiny specks of evidence blowing away, sending temperatures to one hundred and forty degrees Fahrenheit.

The SOCO’s worked painstakingly searching for clues in twenty-minute shifts initially due to the heat before returning to the surface to cool down Evidence was being photographed and collected then labelled and taken to the platform to be logged, each item having a unique number to preserve continuity and prove where it was found some are marked ‘potential health hazard.’

White strips of paper with individual reference numbers were attached to parts of the carriage where bodies or body parts were found; amongst this, they could see the exposed beams the carriage was built on through the ripped flooring.

The SOCO’s officers used sieves to sift through piles of glass, metal and ash searching for parts of the bomb. A magnet attached to the sieve separated metal fragments from the others. Work stretched far outside the carriages that had been blown up, with SOCO’s checking the tracks for any fragments that could have been blown down the tunnel.

This section of the Paddington line would be closed for two weeks whilst this work was being undertaken.