Emergency crews attending last July's London bombings, the first suicide attacks in Western Europe, were let down by poor communications which caused delays treating survivors, an inquiry concluded today.
Four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters and injured some 700 in attacks on three trains and a bus in the capital during morning rush hour.
Richard Barnes, chairman of the report committee
British police fear further attacks by Islamist militants, possibly again targeting public transport.
A London Assembly report said some rescuers had radios which did not work on the underground rail network and others' mobile phones failed.
Ambulances were consequently delayed or sent to the wrong place, basic medical supplies ran short and there were problems in getting some of the injured to hospital.
"At the beginning, I am convinced that they just did not appreciate the magnitude of what had happened," said Richard Barnes, chairman of the report committee.
It took 40 minutes, for example, for the first ambulance to arrive at the scene of a blast in an Underground train tunnel between King's Cross and Russell Square stations, 20 minutes after police reported at least 200 casualties.
At 9.40am, police called on ambulance controllers to "send every unit that you've got".
By 10.13am, there was still only one ambulance to deal with 100 seriously wounded people in the tunnel and up to 50 walking wounded.
The report urged an overhaul of emergency communications and said the systems were unchanged since last July.
"We would be in exactly the same position later today or tomorrow as on July 7th," Mr Barnes told reporters.