Posted on 07/07/2005 5:08:11 AM PDT by conservativecorner
A series of co-ordinated blasts across London that appear to be terror related have caused dozens of casualties, shut down the transport system and caused widespread panic. These are some of the stories from passengers who were travelling at the time of the blast at 9am.
Joanna Myerson, 29, covered in black soot and shaking with shock, was travelling from West Hampstead on a Circle Line train at 8.56 Farringdon to Aldgate.
"All of a sudden everything went white and we got thrown to the floor and there was smoke and fire outside. It sounded like an impact almost.
"You could see a sort of electrical fire outside the carriage, on the wall of the tunnel.
"Everybody had to walk through the train and then jump down onto the track. In the carriage I was in everyone was crying but they quickly took control. No one panicked. We wedged open the doors, you couldn’t open the doors. There were no hammers and you couldn’t get any air.
"The front three carriages were where people were injured.
"People were really good, some people just took control, no one panicked, not in the carriages where we were.
"I am really worried about one guy I saw who was walking with a hole in the back of his head."
Mustafa Kurtuldu, 24, from Hackney, said: "The train seemed to almost lift up off the rails. It sounded like an impact. It went white and there were flames outside the train, but they died down quickly."
"I was in the next carriage from where the actual thing happened.
"The train almost like lifted up. After about like 10 minutes some guys came, I think they must have been London underground guys, and they were walking along the track.
"The explosion happened at about five to nine and by the time we got out it was about half past nine."
The two witnesses said that they had broken out of the train, forced the doors open and walked along the darkened track with other passengers past by what they believe were three badly damaged front carriages, one of which had been bent out of shape and blown out.
They said that there were many injured in front carriages which appeared to take the bulk of the impact of the explosion. They had no idea whether it was a bomb or electrical explosion.
"I walked past one person lying on the tracks. I don't know if they were all right," said Mr Kurtuldu.
Aldgate passenger Sarah Reid said: "I was on the train and there was a sudden jolt forward. There was a really hard banging from the carriage next door to us after the explosion - that's where it happened."
Describing events moments before the explosion, she said: "There was a fire beside me. I saw flames outside on the window of my carriage."
She said tearfully that as she was led away down the tracks, "I saw bodies. I think some people may have died."
Doug Streeter, 50 from Primrose Hill, who was standing in Euston Road when the bomb in Tavistock Square went off in a bus.
"I’m standing there and there was the 'bam'. The noise was staggering.
I didn't see that it was a bus, what I did see was huge chunks of building flying into the street. It looked like the blast pushed the building out into the street.
"I immediately thought 'bomb'. Then everything began to connect. G8, post-Olympics, someone's obviously got this thing figured out."
A man who survived the Aldgate blast told of passengers’ terror when their train ground to a halt. Arash Kazerouni, from Edmonton, North London, 22, said: "There was a loud bang and the train ground to a halt. People started panicking, screaming and crying as smoke came into the carriage. A man told everyone to be calm and we were led to safety along the track."
"Everyone was terrified when it happened. When they led us to safety, I went past the carriage where I think the explosion was. It was the second one from the front. The metal was all blown outwards and there were people inside being helped by paramedics.
"One guy was being tended outside on the track. His clothes were torn off and he seemed pretty badly burned."
Kelly Maher, a 28-year-old PA who escaped the blast, told how she had been trapped in her carriage for around 25 minutes before being evacuated.
"I didn’t really get upset until I managed to get out of our carriage and looked down the track and saw the carriage opposite," she said.
"It was completely destroyed and there was smoke everywhere - thank God there wasn’t a fire as people would have been trapped."
Simon Tonkyn, a 51-year-old IT manager was on his way from Paddington to Aldgate when the blast occurred.
"There was just an enormous bang and a lot of smoke," he said. "Serious questions should be asked about the safety of these trains.
"A group of us got fire extinguishers and were able to smash through the carriage door and I now just feel totally numb."
In Russell Square, commuters saw a packed double decker ripped to shreds. Belinda Seabrook said she saw parts of the vehicle hurled into the air. "I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned round and half the double decker bus was in the air," she said. Mrs Seabrook said the bus was travelling from Euston to Russell Square and had been "packed" with people turned away from Tube stops.
"It was a massive explosion and there were papers and half a bus flying through the air, I think it was the number 205," she said.
"There must be a lot of people dead as all the buses were packed, they had been turning people away from the tube stops. "We were about 20 metres away, that was all."
Simon Corvett, 26, from Oxford, was on the eastbound train leaving Edgware Road Tube station when the explosion happened.
"All of sudden there was this massive huge bang," he said. It was absolutely deafening and all the windows shattered.
"The glass did not actually fall out of the windows, it just cracked. The train came to a grinding halt, everyone fell off their seats."
Mr Corvett, who works in public relations, said the commuter train was absolutely packed. "There were just loads of people screaming and the carriages filled with smoke," he said.
"You couldn’t really breathe and you couldn’t see what was happening. The driver came on the Tannoy and said ‘We have got a problem, don’t panic’."
Mr Corvett, whose face was covered in soot, joined other passengers to force open the train doors with a fire extinguisher. He said the carriage on the other track was destroyed. "You could see the carriage opposite was completely gutted," he added. "There were some people in real trouble."
Sarah Reid, 23, a student doing work experience, was on the carriage next door to the one which was struck by the explosion. Speaking after the ordeal, having been led out down the track near Liverpool Street station, she told how she saw a carriage ripped apart with the roof blown off.
"I think some people may have died," she said.
"I was on the train and there was a fire outside the carriage window and then there was a sudden jolt which shook us forward.
"The explosion was behind me. Some people took charge. We went out of the back of the carriage."
She said the explosion happened at 8.50am but she was not able to get off the carriage until 9.30am. Miss Reid said an announcement came on but cut off after saying: "Hello".
"There was really hard banging from the carriage next door to us," she said, describing events immediately after the blast.
"That was where it happened," she added.
She said there was a fire which she had seen initially outside the window of her carriage. Describing being led away from the scene, she said: "A carriage was split in two, all jagged, and without a roof, just open.
"I saw bodies, I think."
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