7.7: One Day In London Page #6

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start to get a spell of burning

and the air has got, like,

a taste to it, almost,

of burnt plastic and things

and then you start

getting close to the platform

and then it sort of hits you

that this is actually quite real.

The smoke you can now see

billowing down the dark track,

and it's a black hole.

You're looking down a black hole

and you've just got

these little miners' lamps, almost

and you can then hear

screaming and shouting

and the hairs on the back of

your neck sort of stand on end.

Although we're ambulance people,

paramedics or whatever,

we're still human, and I just...

You know, the impulse is to run away

with everybody else.

I didn't particularly want

to go down that train.

I didn't particularly want

to see the things that I saw

or deal with

the things I dealt with.

And then the emergency services

and the paramedics,

they just arrived like a wave

coming through the train.

Fireman, policemen,

ambulance, everywhere,

you know, literally swamped.

I was relieved to see them,

but also very angry.

I'd been there for

quite an amount of time.

I didn't know

it was 40 minutes at the time,

but it seemed like an eternity

I'd been there.

And they brought in

these emergency lights

and I thought I'd been leaning

on a bundle of rags

or, you know, a bag

or something like that

and I looked over and it was...

It was like a big piece of someone,

with a bone sticking out of it.

And I looked at the sleeve of my

shirt, cos everything was now light

and it was just red with blood,

from above the elbow to the bottom.

When the paramedics

eventually did come through

and I decided now was

the time for me to leave

because the experts were here

and I was only going

to get in their way,

erm, I walked back

through the empty train...

and it was empty

cos everyone else had left.

And that's when I started to shake.

You know, that's when

the shock really hit me.

I had to hold on to the handrails

to get myself out of the train

because I was shaking so much.

'It's chaos everywhere.

'I've just come past Russell Square,

they've closed it off.'

'Say again. You just came past

where?' 'Russell Square Station.'

'They've closed it all off.

D'you think it's a major disaster?'

'Well, let's not speculate...'

'Scotland Yard says that at

approximately 8.50 this morning,

'they were called to Aldgate,

London Transport Station,

'to assist

the City of London Police and...'

'There's no sense that this is

in any way terrorist-related.

'There's no signs of anyone

imagining that there might be

'any further danger in this area.'

I took a cup of tea in

to watch the television.

I was watching the news,

news programmes,

and then saw this thing

unfolding and...

of course,

nobody knew what it was,

it was a power surge,

no suggestion it was terrorism.

And Anat was on the phone to me

from a mobile,

telling me the problems

she was having on the journey

and I was saying, "Well, this has

happened and this has happened."

Yeah, we were keeping in touch,

and she got to Euston Station

and said,

"Oh, the trains have stopped."

She said, "I'm outside Euston."

And she said, "There's a great crowd.

"You know...

"I need to get a bus,

what am I going to do?"

And to my eternal regret, I said,

"Well, be smart. Walk back.

"Get on the stop before Euston."

So she did that and then

eventually phoned back and said,

"Oh, that worked." She said,

"I've got a seat on a number 30."

I learned by listening to the radio

that the tubes had come to a halt

and that a lot of people

were getting off the tubes,

getting onto buses

and the traffic was getting

really heavy at that time.

We started work and one of the

employers come down called Roger,

saw the laughter and said,

"Pointless making sandwiches today,

the tube lines have all broken down.

"No-one can get in at the moment."

There were so many people

at the bus stop,

so I was wondering what happened.

I thought it was just a busy day.

I entered Tavistock Square,

and drove on the side opposite

to BMA House, around the square.

In the queue of traffic

coming down was a bus.

And we carried on talking,

she told me about the bus

being diverted down

towards Tavistock Square,

and because I was involved

in a local amenity group,

involved with their newsletter,

Anat said,

"Well, whatever's happening,

"this should make something

for your newsletter."

And as soon as

she said, "newsletter,"

I heard terrible screams

in the background.

Nothing from Annette.

Not an "Oh, my God,"

not a breath, nothing at all,

and then her phone went dead.

And I knew then that...

something terrible had happened.

I knew that, you know,

if she'd had any possibility

of communicating with me,

she would have done.

If I hadn't have been

so damn smart and said to her,

"Oh, beat the queues," you know.

But to actually have

directed her onto that bus...

I heard what sounded

like a firecracker,

that went right across

from left to right,

and the next thing I remember

was lots of noises

and I couldn't open my eyes.

The ceiling of the bus, erm...

crashed onto my shoulder.

And it must have pushed me down and

maybe instinctively

I held my hands in front of my eyes,

which was lucky because I had

some bad wounds on my left hand.

I just heard the sound, and after

the sound I didn't know where I was.

I was on the floor.

I saw some people are dead,

some people with blood

coming from their eyes,

some people with blood

coming from their heads.

People don't normally get

that close to large explosions

and don't know what they look like.

It was loud, but it was a black

centre with smoke around it,

and everything

seemed to shoot out of it,

including,

as I fell down to the seat,

a person that was

flying up in the air

with a complete look of shock

and surprise on her face.

In that second and a half,

so much goes through your mind

and goes in and is trapped

there... this is a bomb,

I'm too close, I could be killed

in the next instant.

And people have been injured.

Everything sort of goes

into your mind and stays there.

I just want to say

something about Neetu.

OK. Shall I start it?

Yeah. Yeah.

"Neetu was my youngest daughter,

who was killed on 7th of July,

"year 2005, due to

a bus explosion in London.

"I always see Neetu,

smiling and laughing,

"and never saw any

disappointment on her face.

"Neetu was

a very special gift from God.

"As a child, she loved school

very much. She was very happy."

Our friend Milan is an officer.

He brought to us Neetu's purse.

This item in my hand is her

London Transport travel card,

because she was travelling

from Hendon Central

to Old Street every day.

If she's running short of money,

she can get money

from any till machine.

And if she wants to borrow

a book from the library,

she also have a library card here.

She will go, on her way back home,

she will go to the library

and get a book.

The damage was the pockets.

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