BRITAIN: The terror had returned and Londoners held their breath. Through the first long hour or so of confusion and doubt, the similarities already seemed plain enough.
Indeed that very confusion, the uncertainty and absence of hard facts replayed in our minds the events of that morning two weeks before - when first reports of an electrical fault on London's Underground had given way to the grim reality of Britain's first suicide bombers and 56 dead.
Hadn't we known they would strike again? In the hours and days immediately after July 7th, people privately confided their near certainty that the bombers would return. As the search continued for bodies under the wreckage at King's Cross, it felt grotesque to voice it aloud.
Yet the fear was palpable - that the terrorists' blood-lust had hardly been satisfied with that death toll.
Even as Londoners responded in magnificent defiance, there was unease about the oft-repeated message - "we can take it" - and the response it might evoke.
As the first news broke yesterday during the BBC's bulletin at 1pm, we knew it had arrived. In the preceding hour the tube stations at the Oval, Shepherd's Bush and Warren Street had been evacuated. Emerging passengers told of small explosions, white smoke, the strange smell like that of burning tyres.
As police cleared premises close to Warren Street, London Underground announced the suspension of the Hammersmith City, Victoria and Northern lines.
Police were not calling it a serious incident "yet". What might that portend? Dread grew with reports of five ambulances dispatched to Warren Street amid suggestions of a nail bomb attack. Soon after 1.30pm, meanwhile, police responded to reports of an explosion on a number 26 bus at Columbia Road near Bethnal Green in the East End.
With no sign of casualties and suggestions that detonators might have caused the explosions, it might of course be a "copycat" attack, or an elaborate hoax.
But the pattern of July 7th had been repeated. Three tube trains and a bus, the maps pin-pointing the incidents showing the same north-south, east-west trajectory suggestive of a "burning cross" across the capital.
We barely needed Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian Blair to confirm subsequently that this was indeed a "very serious" incident. Some time before, prime minister Tony Blair had interrupted his talks with Australian prime minister John Howard and cleared his diary to chair a meeting of the cabinet's contingency "Cobra" committee.
Mercifully, as Sir Ian was able to confirm, the explosions or attempted explosions were smaller than those of two weeks before.
The Underground would have to close for a short time but as Bob Crowe of the RMT union observed - notwithstanding the levels of chaos and panic induced - "Thank God we're not dealing with the same situation as two weeks ago."
Still the fallout continued as police sought to establish control on the ground and at the four crime scenes.
Sir Ian's initial message to Londoners was precisely the same as before - to stay where they were - as officers in protective clothing entered Warren Street station having already cleared Oval of any form of chemical attack.
Meanwhile, as journalists waited inside 10 Downing Street for Mr Blair's delayed press conference, attention switched outside to extraordinary scenes just across the road in Whitehall, where at about 3.25pm, armed police forced a man to the ground before arresting him at gunpoint.
Shortly before 4pm, Sir Ian appeared again, this time to declare the situation "fully under control", while Tony Blair finally appeared before the cameras with Mr Howard to signal his resumption of normal business.
For police that meant, among other things, continuing the search at University College Hospital near Warren Street for a man of over 6ft with wires reportedly protruding from his top. For Londoners, another night of frustration and delay in getting home.
The prime minister and the commissioner revealed something of the pressures in seeking to strike the right balance in urging the public to stay "alert but not alarmed". The emergency plans had again swung seamlessly into place. The police operation was similarly impressive and last night appeared to have yielded crucial gains, with potentially vital forensic evidence resulting from the evident failure of the bombs to explode properly.
Yet for the security chiefs meeting Mr Blair later at Number 10, the challenge of these new opportunities is accompanied by the chilling knowledge that July 7th was not a one-off, that there are more potential bombers out there. The terror is something every Londoner will have to factor into lifestyles and patterns which are already, if imperceptibly, beginning to change.