7 July bombings memorial defaced on ninth anniversary

The stainless steel columns of the memorial in Hyde Park, central London, were daubed with red and black slogans overnight with the messages “4 Innocent Muslims,” “Blair Lied Thousands Died” and “J7 Truth”.

A spokeswoman for the Royal Parks said the slogans had now been removed after they were discovered early this morning by the park’s manager.

She said: “We found it this morning. It has now been removed and the memorial can go ahead as planned. Obviously, we are very disappointed.”

7/7 attacks

The monument honouring the 52 dead in the attack on London’s transport system in 2005 cost nearly £1m and has 52 stainless steel columns, or stelae, 11.5ft tall.

It was unveiled in 2009 at a memorial attended by the Prince of Wales, the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown and other political leaders.

The columns are grouped together in four clusters, reflecting the separate locations of the bombings – Tavistock Square, Edgware Road, King’s Cross and Aldgate.

Four suicide bombers detonated their rucksack devices near these locations on the morning of 7 July 2005, killing the 52 and injuring hundreds of others, some seriously.

‘Maximum grief’

Graffiti was scrawled on the memorial in 2009 two weeks after its dedication ceremony on the fourth anniversary of the attacks.

John Falding, whose partner Anat Rosenberg, a 39-year-old charity worker, was killed in the Tavistock Square bus bomb, condemned the vandalism.

“It is quite shocking, whoever did it was aiming for publicity and to cause maximum grief,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace, which is organising the memorial, said Transport for London and Royal Parks staff had joined in the clean-up of the graffiti.

“Today is about the families and the survivors, we are disappointed that it happened, especially for them,” she said.