One U.S. citizen is missing and is presumed to have died in the near-simultaneous bombings of subway trains and a bus last week in London, the State Department said Monday.
Department officials did not identify the person presumed to have died in the attacks, but the New York Times reported Sunday that friends and relatives have been unable to locate Michael Matsushita, 37, a New York City resident who left the city four years ago to see the world.
The newspaper said Matsushita, who moved to London recently to be with his fiancée after working as a recruiter in Australia and as a tour guide in Southeast Asia, was believed to be aboard one of three subway trains torn apart by bombs.
The State Department said that four other Americans were among the more than 700 people injured in the attacks. All apparently are recovering from their injuries.
Among the injured Americans were two sisters who were wounded when a bomb exploded behind them in a subway car.
Kathleen “Katie” Benton, 21, and Emily Benton, 20, were both alert and talkative and were to be moved to a semi-private room Friday so they could be together, their family said Friday on a Web site for Fellowship Church in Knoxville, Tenn.
Day one of a trip to London
“They were going to spend a week together, hanging out and sightseeing,” said Alan Ramsey, a youth minister who spoke with the sisters’ parents. “That was day one of their trip.”
Katie Benton had been in Kenya on a school-related trip and Emily Benton flew to London to meet her, Ramsey said.
The bomb blast left Emily Benton with some broken bones and skin missing on her feet. She had surgery Thursday and another operation Friday, Ramsey said.
Katie Benton is a student at the University of Tennessee, and Emily is a student at Pellissippi State Technical Community College in Knoxville.
The other two injured Americans were treated and released, the State Department said. It did not identify them, citing privacy regulations.