Pictures taken with mobile phones provided some of the most vivid and intimate images of the devastation brought to London by last Thursday’s bomb blasts.
The images filled TV screens and news websites around the world as members of the public caught up in the attacks became journalists with the aid of mobile phones with built in cameras.
Striking, grainy images, of victims making their way out through gloomy underground tunnels were captured only by amateur photographers.
Some websites, including the BBC, have video footage filmed by victims on trains affected by the blasts.
The first images of the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square with its roof blown off arrived from mobile phones, before professional photographers had time to get to the scene. When the professionals did get there, they were of course prevented by the police from getting too close for security reasons.
Although mobile phones can’t receive a signal from within the London underground system, they can still be used to take pictures and record short lengths of video. The images can then be later sent out via the mobile phone network or uploaded to a computer and published on websites.
As news websites requested mobile phone images from readers and as members of the public uploaded their images to web log sites, the number of images available has grown. Reuters reports that the BBC has received about 1000 images from members of the public.
Mobile phones have an 80% ‘market penetration’ in the UK, and many of them now come equipped with built in digital cameras.
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