When the first subway bomb exploded yesterday in London, Mayor Giuliani was just blocks away, eating breakfast at his hotel.

The former mayor, who won virtually universal admiration for the way he handled the terrorist attacks in New York City in 2001, said bombings in Britain were a “very, very, eerie” reminder of what happened almost four years ago in the city he led.

In an interview with CNN yesterday, Mr. Giuliani, who was on a business trip to London, praised the British response to the simultaneous attacks, which left at least 37 dead and hundreds injured.

“The emergency services – I could see some of them responding – were right on top of it, and looked like they had been very, very well trained,” he said. “And they looked like they had been prepared for this.”

He continued: “It was very, very eerie. I guess the strangest feeling was the feeling of kind of living through it again, more than being an observer. Because we were so close to where the first one happened.”

Mr. Giuliani, who did several other television interviews yesterday, said the London attacks should remind people of the urgency of the threat of terrorism.

“And this is, unfortunately, a tragic reminder that you can’t forget,” he said, “that we are living with this in the modern world. It requires our being very vigilant, it requires our keeping the terrorists on the defensive rather than having them put us on the defensive.”