At the scene of the unexploded car bomb in Haymarket

DSC00063.JPG, originally uploaded by MacOoi.

We passed Haymarket this morning on our way to the Mac shop in Regent Street and I took this photo with my cameraphone. The ranks of cameras and journalists were clustered at the edge of the police cordon, shooting footage of Haymarket - which was cleared of traffic and strangely silent and still. There were lots of tourists milling around with the reporters shooting the empty street, too, with their digital cameras and handycams.

As you may know, Haymarket was the site where the unexploded car bomb was found early this morning and a potential bomb attack in Central London was foiled.

We were approached by a Canadian reporter, Trista Kelly, who writes for Bloomberg News (online) wanting our reaction to this event. My response was that this was bound to happen at some time - we are always being warned that London is a target for attack that sooner or later, it is not so surprising that something will happen. London has always been a target for attack for as long as I’ve been in the UK - since the 1970s. At that time, it was the IRA and now it’s Al-Qaeda.

Fortunately, this time, the attack was stopped in time and no one was hurt. In this light, the incident became another one of those inconveniences that Londoners always have to put up with - like tube strikes and road works. For me, it felt like something annoying that I had to work around in the busy day that I had planned.

It seemed that most Londoners had a similar approach, judging from the traffic chaos. Everyone was trying to get to work or wherever they had to get to. No-one was staying home because of fear or anxiety.

And as if to prove this, just round the corner - literally - in Trafalgar Square, the Canada Day celebrations were in full swing a bit later on today. There were maple leaf flags and balloons, Canadians playing hockey, marquees with stalls promoting all things Canadian. People were strolling along, laughing, taking photos. Wandering around, you would not know that just a few streets away there had been a car packed with explosives.

We were all getting on with our business. London always does.