LONDON — Across London people bowed their heads and shed silent tears Friday as the nation joined the world in mourning the thousands killed in the United States this week in the world's worst terror attacks.
Several hundred Britons are among those missing and feared dead after Tuesday's suicide plane attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, making Britain one of the countries worst hit other than the United States itself.
As the bell of Parliament's Big Ben clock tower struck the hour of 11 a.m., traffic across the capital came to a halt, classes stopped in schools and people ceased walking and talking for three minutes of silent reflection on the heinous attacks.
Britain's National Grid experienced a seven percent drop in demand for electricity—one of the biggest sudden drops ever seen—as people observed the three minute silence.
"Demand fell very, very quickly which is what is so unusual," a spokesman told Reuters.
Young Londoner Dolly Blomely, dressed all in black, was one of those who bowed her head in grief in Trafalgar Square.
Asked what had been going through her mind, she replied: "A terrible sadness really. The tragedy of what happened there and the loss to everyone," she said, wiping away a tear.
An hour later thousands of people gathered at St. Paul's Cathedral for a memorial service to the dead.
Police said people had been queuing through the night to get a place among the 2,000 allowed inside Christopher Wren's landmark monument where Queen Elizabeth and the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the worldwide Anglican church, led the nation in an outpouring of grief.
Outside the cathedral police said some 15,000 people were packed 50-deep into the streets to listen to the 60-minute service relayed on loudspeakers.
Queen sheds a tear
One girl stood with her eyes shut, tears coursing down her face, with a lit miner's lamp on her head. Many people were weeping silently. The predominant color of clothing was black.
"This is the worst thing that has happened in my life. It is terrible, terrible," said 27-year-old New Zealander Catherine Jolly, wiping away tears and with her chin trembling.
"I have never experienced anything like that in my life and I hope I will never see anything like it again," said 70-year-old London resident Ogwen Adams, referring to the television images of people leaping from the towering inferno of the World Trade Center's twin towers moments before they collapsed.
"I feel that the leaders will keep calm and will not go for wild revenge. We have to have tolerance. Violence only creates more violence," she added as she too wept openly.
The crowd burst into spontaneous applause as Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey ended his closing address with words of hope. "For if we are steadfast we know that, by the grace of God, no darkness, no evil can ever extinguish that beacon of hope," he said as the congregation and the crowd burst into The Battle Hymn of the Republic.
As the Queen and Prince Charles, the heir to her throne, left the service they paused to chat with a group of Americans waiting outside.
"I hope that helps," the Queen told television executive Dan Rivkin, referring to the service, while Prince Charles observed: "We all want to do what we can."
It may have been a trick of the light, but several people said they saw a tear in the Queen's eye.