THE driver of a bombed bus unwittingly saved dozens of lives on July 7 when he released passengers from the packed vehicle shortly before the 2005 explosion, it has emerged.
As thousands of commuters poured out of the Tube and roads were cordoned off after the three earlier Underground bombs, George Psaradakis was diverted from his No 30 route. He told the July 7 inquests that he turned off Euston Road, in North London, before announcing the diversion to passengers and suggesting that they walk if they were close to their destination.
His bus was packed with passengers from the Tube, and about 30 to 50 people then got off, unaware that his advice might have saved their lives.
Moments later, as Mr Psaradakis drew up alongside Tavistock Square, the teenage suicide bomber Hasib Hussain detonated his device, killing himself and 13 other people.
Mr Psaradakis, who initially thought he had hit something, was left “stunned and shocked” as the windscreen blew away and debris fell on top of him. Describing the carnage, he told the hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice that he saw a leg stuck on a nearby wall.
“Wherever I looked there were bodies, torsos. [There were] two piles of human flesh. I kept looking if there’s anybody I could help but people were dismembered or dying.
“[The road] was strewn with body parts. A few moments before, people were talking and even laughing, and then I see my passengers in such a state. It really shocked me.”
Georgina Ford, a passenger who was trapped under the collapsed roof of the bus, told how she wriggled out of the mangled debris between “twisted and tangled seats”. She said: “I just remember many, many bodies on the lower deck in various states. It looked like a flatbed truck of bodies.”
It has been heard previously that Hussain had transferred to the bus system after a flat battery prevented him from detonating his bomb on the Underground at the agreed time of 8.50am with his three accomplices.
The hearing was told that passengers several feet away from Hussain died instantly but Sapna Khimani, who was sitting in the seat behind him, somehow survived. She saw a “big flash of white light” and the next thing she remembered was being unable to open her eyes as she gave a man her husband’s name.
Earlier that morning, Mr Psaradakis had done a routine search on his bus for suspect packages when he left Hackney Wick, in East London, and found nothing. He knew that something was seriously wrong when he saw masses of people being evacuated from the Tube and standing on Euston Road, but had only been told by his controller there had been a “disruption”.
He told the coroner, Lady Justice Hallett: “I could not imagine we were at the epicentre, at the heart of a terrorist attack.”
Mr Psaradakis could not recall Hussain, the youngest of the four terrorists, getting on the bus because it was so crowded. There were so many people on it that he initially refused to drive away from Euston station until several got off, as he could not see his mirrors.
“As soon as I opened the door a number of people [were] swarming the bus. I could imagine that something really bad was happening but I couldn’t explain to myself [what it was],” he said.
Outside the hearing, he said: “When I am asked to talk about July 7, 2005, what immediately comes to my mind is all those innocent fellow citizens who lost their lives in such a gruesome and barbaric way while simply going about their legitimate business.”
The hearing continues.
Be the first to comment