±«Óãtv

I was strolling along Regent Street in London, heading for a meeting at the ±«Óãtv's Henry Wood House, when a policeman started shouting at me. Not just me, of course, but hundreds of afternoon shoppers.

"Get yourself off the street as quickly as possible!"

All around us was the wail of ambulance and police sirens and there were fire engines and rapid response vehicles parked on either side of the street. A cordon of blue and white tape told us there was some kind of emergency, but no one knew exactly what was going on. I heard a group of construction workers talk about a gas explosion, some said there had been an accident in a man-hole.
Later revealed that one man had been seriously hurt after drilling through electrical cables.

No one on the street had talked about a bomb and, in truth, everyone looked calm and relaxed. They waited and watched while the emergency services went about their business. Perhaps Londoners are just getting used to this kind of thing.