Bombings create echoes for writers.

The terrorist bombs that hit London's mass transit system July 7 presented U.K. life insurers with a scenario that has become familiar in recent years: a highly public event and a number of potential claims involving yet-to-be-identified victims.

The attacks, which killed more than 50 people, recalled train crashes over the years; the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in December 1988; and last year's Asian tsunami.

In each case, insurers faced shocked and grieving relatives who found themselves caught up in investigations.

The identification of victims in the London bombings was hampered by the location of the Piccadilly Line train in which a large number of the victims died. Not only was the tunnel containing the train deep underground, but it had a very narrow clearance on each side. Flyers describing the missing were posted near King's Cross Station. Malcolm Tarling, a spokesman for the Association of British Insurers, said the industry is committed to processing claims quickly. "They will deal with claims as sympathetically as they possibly can," Tarling said.

He said the identification of a body normally is necessary for the payment of a life insurance policy. The usual proof is a death certificate issued by a coroner, he said.

"For a death certificate to be issued. there needs to be a body," Tarling said.

This requirement can be waived in exceptional circumstances. Tarling noted that after the tsunami, insurers were willing to accept such evidence as a stub from an airline ticket indicating that a person had visited the affected area.

The London bombings aren't likely to generate large numbers of claims for individual insurers. Legal & General Assurance Society Ltd., Aviva plc and Prudential Assurance Co. Ltd. reported that as of July 12 they hadn't yet received any claims from the attacks.