Firsthand account of suriving the terroist attack on the tube in London....

July 07, 2005

Fait Accompli

Surviving a Terrorist Attack

Fate is a strange thing. On this particular day a series of events transpired such that I ended up on a Tube train that was destroyed by terrorists. Fortunately it was only the carriage in front of me, but tragically it resulted in a serious amount of injuries. This is my story.

I boarded the train at King's Cross after a series of line closures forced me onto a Circle Line train; little did I know at the time that this was probably the worst thing I could have done.

Travelling just past Edgware Road Station the train entered a tunnel. We shook like any usual tube train as it rattled down the tracks. It was then I heard a loud bang.

The train left the tracks and started to rumble down the tunnel. It was incapable of stopping and just rolled on. A series of explosions followed as if tube electric motor after motor was exploding. Each explosion shook the train in the air and seems to make it land at a lower point.

I fell to the ground like most people, scrunched up in a ball in minimize injury. At this point I wondered if the train would ever stop, I thought "please make it stop", but it kept going. In the end I just wished that it didn't hit something and crush. It didn't.

When the train came to a standstill people were screaming, but mainly due to panic as the carriage was rapidly filling with smoke and the smell of burning motors was giving clear clues of fire.

As little as 5 seconds later we were unable to see and had all hit the ground for the precious air that remaining. We were all literally choking to death.

The carriage however was pretty sealed; no window could open, no door would slide and no hammers seemed to exist to grant exit. If there were instructions on how to act then they were impossible to see in the thick acrid black smoke.

In the end I opted to do something about the problem and began shouting to find out in which direction the fires were emanating from. I then tested with the inter-carriage door to see if venting the smoke caused fire to spread. It didn't so I held the door open trying to clear the carriage and look for escape routes.

The train was packed and so there was no escape to the other carriages. Through the gap between the carriages however I saw an escape route and it calmed me from panic; if things got bad I could see an exit along the tunnel wall.

The fire concerned me and the acrid smoke never seems to fully dissipate. I calmed passengers playing down the issue as a bad tube network and a network derailment. Naturally people were in a mixture of states from quiet to abject panic in all its colours.

People could be heard screaming from all around; people were trapped, yet no-one could move and do anything.

After an eternity a guard moved through the carriages and asked everyone to move in the opposite direction. No one however moved, I think they were all in shock.

Questions were asked and we were still trying to determine which direction could be used for escape, which directions had fire. It was all so unclear and the smoke persisted.

In the end a flow of people started and stopped after more confusion and screaming, then out of the smoke injuries started to come through.

Everyone parted, for in the next carriage there was total carnage. Serious facial and body injuries caused by smoke, glass from windows and pure shock.

Naturally we let the injured off first, but with no medical assistance in the area I feared for the others. Particularly as there was little more I could do.

Eventually I made it to the end of the train and dismounted down the wooden ladder, something curiously I've done before. We walked down the tunnel back to Edgware Road and fresh air, finally being able to breathe properly.

I called my love ones and told them what had happened; the news hadn't broken. I was lead out of the station and expected to see emergency services. There were none; things were so bad that they couldn't make it.

The victims were being triaged at the station entrance by Tube staff and as I could see little more I could do so I got out of the way and left. As I stepped out people with camera phones vied to try and take pictures of the worst victims. In crisis some people are cruel.

I prayed for the victims and injured, I truly hoped they'd get medical attention quickly, but terrorism isn't about compassion it's about pain and London's poor medical and fire services are being stretched to their limit today.

London Transport should have closed all stations immediately, but didn't. My dice with death could have been avoided with better planning. The design of trains needs to be changed and zero-visibility factored into emergency plans.

I pity the waste and loss, while thanking the gods while wondering why me - why do I get to live another day?

---

Edit: Thank you all for your kind comments on my experiences. If you wish to read the follow-up of my day you'll find it here.

--- Justin (8th July)

Posted by justin at 11:10 AM UTC+1 | Comments (41) | TrackBack (39)

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