Shocking pictures show site of July 7 bombing carnage

HARROWING accounts of the July 7 terror victims’ final moments were heard by a coroner yesterday as shocking footage of the bomb sites was shown in public for the first time.

An inquest into the deaths of the 52 innocent people killed in the attacks were told that rescue workers met a “horrifying scene of mangled flesh-torn bodies, debris and metal” when they went to help the injured.

The devastation was revealed in police video recordings, played in court, of the bus and three underground trains where four suicide bombers from Yorkshire blew themselves up with explosives in rucksacks on the morning of July 7, 2005.

Coroner Lady Justice Hallett, sitting at the Royal Courts of Justice, heard how London’s emergency services struggled to reach victims of the explosions, caused by Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30; Shehzad Tanweer, 22; Hassib Hussain, 18; all from Leeds, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19; who grew up in Huddersfield.

The hearing was told that unhurt Tube passengers clambered over railway lines to help the dying in “acts of remarkable heroism and human fortitude”.

Counsel to the inquests Hugo Keith QC told the court that 26 victims were killed when Lindsay’s bomb exploded in the first carriage of a southbound Piccadilly Line service between King’s Cross and Russell Square.

Earlier delays on the Piccadilly Line meant the train was packed with up to 1,500 passengers in “crushed” conditions, which may explain why the death toll was so high, Mr Keith added.

The blast was so powerful that six of the dead were blown out on to the tracks, including a couple whose “anguished” cries for help could be heard in the tunnel.

Samantha Badham, 35, and Lee Harris, 30, who planned to marry, were carried away from the scene but died later.

Also killed in the blast were James Adams, 32; Ciaran Cassidy, 22; Rachelle Chung For Yuen, 27; Elizabeth Daplyn, 26; Gamze Gunoral, 24; Emily Jenkins, 24; Adrian Johnson, 37; Helen Jones, 28; Michael Matsushita, 37; James Mayes, 28; Behnaz Mozakka, 47; Atique Sharifi, 24; Monika Suchocka, 23; Mala Trivedi, 51; Arthur Frederick, 60; Karolina Gluck, 21; Mihaela Otto, 46; Ihab Slimane, 24; Anna Brandt, 41; Ojara Ikeagwu, 56; Christian Small, 28; Philip Beer, 22; Shelley Mather, 26; and Susan Levy, 53.

Footage of the mangled train, recorded after the bodies were taken away, shows that the driver’s cab window was shattered and wires hung from the ceiling of a carriage.

The inquests heard that seven victims were killed by Tanweer’s bomb, which blew a hole through the floor of a Circle Line train near Aldgate.

They were Lee Blaisden, 34; Richard Gray, 41; Fiona Stevenson, 29; Carrie Taylor, 24; Anne Moffat, 48; Richard Ellery, 21; and Benedetta Ciaccia, 30.

Mr Keith said that, in one of several acts of bravery witnessed in the minutes after the explosion, a woman used her corduroy jacket to make a tourniquet for a man who lost both his legs. She helped another man by tying her belt around his legs.

Video footage of the Aldgate scene shows smashed windows, damaged doors, commuters’ abandoned bags, and blood on the seats and platforms.

Six people were killed when Khan’s bomb detonated on a Circle Line train near Edgware Road, Mr Keith told the hearing.

They all died before emergency services arrived, and the rescue effort was initially led by London Underground staff and unhurt passengers from a nearby train.

Khan’s victims were: Michael Brewster, 52 a manager at Derbyshire County Council; Laura Webb, 29; Jonathan Downey, 34; David Foulkes, 22; Colin Morley, 52; and Jennifer Nicholson, 24.

The hearing was told that Hussain’s bomb exploded almost an hour after the other three, on the number 30 bus at Tavistock Square.

The blast tore through the top deck of the bus, throwing passengers into the street.

A former student of Bradford University, Anthony Fatayi-Williams, 26, was one of 13 people killed in the explosion.

The others were: Anat Rosenberg, 39; Neetu Jain, 38; Shyanuja Parathasangary, 30; Philip Russell, 28; Giles Hart, 55; Jamie Gordon, 30; Shahara Islam, 20; William Wise, 54; Miriam Hyman, 32; Marie Hartley, 34; Gladys Wundowa, 50; and Sam Ly, 28.

The inquests, which are expected to last five months, will examine whether West Yorkshire Police, the Metropolitan Police and security services could have prevented the attacks.

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