London filled with images of the missing

LONDON — As work crews battle rats and crumbling walls to reach the bombed-out train and remaining corpses at King's Cross Underground station, just above them beam the images of the men and women who are nowhere to be found.

Their faces are plastered on walls, fences, bus stops and Web sites: loving looks and sultry glances, ear-to-ear grins and naughty smirks. They represent the missing at the best of times, the only times when people bother to take photographs: Ojara Ikeagwu dons a graduation cap; Phil Beer wears a tuxedo; John Steadman unwraps presents; Christian Small beams at the camera; and Karolina Gluck, with her spiky blond hair, grins mischievously.

The heartache is revealed only below the image, where friends and families have scribbled their urgent pleas for help. "Karolina is still missing," says one, eerily reminiscent of the posters of the missing that blanketed New York City in the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Two days after London was rocked by four explosions and at least 49 dead, some 20 to 50 people remain unaccounted for by hospitals, coroners, friends and relatives.

It is feared that some of them may have died on the King's Cross Underground, which took the hardest hit, or the double-decker bus that blew up nearby. Crews are still trying to reach the wreckage of the train carriage on the King's Cross line, but the police have said there are many bodies trapped in the rubble below. They can see them, but they cannot get to them.

Reflecting the diversity of London, many of the missing traveled long and far to arrive here. They are Polish and Turkish and American. They come from Mauritius, Germany and Australia. A few are Muslim, and they are almost all young. Gluck, for example, is a 29-year-old Polish immigrant.

"I've cried a lot," said Richard Deer, who is Gluck's boyfriend. "It's so up and down. But she would stand out. Her hair would stand out. She was honestly very special. I keep calling the police. I called them three times, and they said they had nothing new. I told them I would continue to call until I was blue in the face."

The family and friends of the missing are pressing the search, even as hope begins to ebb, if only slightly. They have scoured hospitals, handed out pictures to passers-by, contacted reporters and called the police. They double-back and double-check. Now, there is little to do but wait, and in some cases, talk.

Karolina Gluck left her North London apartment Thursday morning, visions of Paris swirling around her head.