The true story behind Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, explained

Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers lands on Netflix worldwide on July 1, 2025, as a four-part limited series directed by documentary veteran Liza Williams and produced by The Garden.

Each 60-minute episode arrives simultaneously at the platform’s usual release window (12 a.m. PT). The series stitches together CCTV, police evidence logs, and first-person interviews with survivors, investigators, former PM Tony Blair and ex-MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller. The series follows the 21-day manhunt that began minutes after the blasts.

The limited series, edited for pace around a minute-by-minute timeline of July 7, 2005, promises the most complete reconstruction yet of Britain’s first Islamist suicide attacks.

By blending news footage with forensic reconstructions, Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers sets out both to memorialize the 52 people killed and to examine the intelligence lapses that let four homegrown extremists slip through the net.

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What happened on July 7, 2005, explored ahead of Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers

London’s rush-hour routine was shattered at 08:50 a.m. when three near-simultaneous explosions ripped through Tube trains between Aldgate and Liverpool Street, Edgware Road and Paddington, and King’s Cross and Russell Square. Almost an hour later, a fourth device detonated on the No. 30 bus at Tavistock Square. Fifty-two commuters died, and more than 700 were injured.

As per The Guardian report dated July 11, 2005, then-Prime Minister Tony Blair told MPs,

“We are united in our determination that our country will not be defeated by such terror but will defeat it and emerge from this horror with our values, our way of life, our tolerance and respect for others, undiminished.”

His words framed the response that followed: a vast forensic trawl of shrapnel, travel cards, and DNA that identified the bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Lindsay, and Hasib Hussain, within 48 hours.

Survivor testimony underpins both the historical record and Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers. As per The Guardian feature dated May 25, 2019, commuter Daniel Biddle recalled,

“I came face to face with the worst of humanity – and then the best,”

after losing both legs in the Edgware Road blast. His account illustrates how acts of spontaneous heroism punctuated the carnage and why psychological scars often outlast physical wounds.

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How Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers reconstructs the manhunt

Episode 1 of Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers replays the first chaotic morning, when power-surge rumors delayed recognition of a terror plot. Later installments chart the forensic breakthrough, gym membership cards, and CCTV from Luton.

Linking the attackers to a Leeds cell and tracking the frantic hunt for accomplices that culminated in the 21 July attempted attacks and the tragic misidentification of Jean Charles de Menezes.

Central to the series is an examination of intelligence oversights. As per The Guardian report dated July 20, 2010, former MI5 director Eliza Manningham-Buller testified,

“Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people … who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack on Islam.”

Her admission anchors episode 3, which asks whether surveillance gaps, not statutory powers, allowed Khan and Tanweer to move from “subjects of interest” to suicide bombers.

The final chapter revisits the 2011 coronial inquest. Coroner Lady Justice Hallett concluded that open hearings did not compromise security. As per a Guardian report dated July 6, 2025, she stated,

“To my mind … the concerns that I would not be able to conduct a thorough and fair investigation … have proved unfounded.”

That verdict underlines the documentary’s thesis: robust scrutiny, not secrecy, strengthens counter-terror strategy.

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Stay tuned for more updates.