Ten years on, girl who survived 7/7 sobs as she tells of day ‘we all lost our innocence’
SHE was only 14 and on her way to do work experience when the terrorist’s bomb ripped through the Tube carriage next to hers.
Schoolgirl Emma Craig walked away uninjured from the blast which killed seven and injured scores more near Aldgate on July 7, 2005.
But on the inside she was so deeply traumatised by the carnage she had witnessed, she hid her inner pain for six years before seeking help.
Yesterday, with incredible courage, she spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences at an event marking the tenth anniversary of the bombings, saying: ‘It may not have broken London, but it did break some of us.’
Her articulate, heartfelt and honest words about the collective ‘loss of innocence’ came before an invited audience of 400, including many relatives of the 52 victims of 7/7 and the Duke of Cambridge, and deeply touched all who heard them.
Indeed, they formed perhaps the most poignant moment on a day of sombre reflection and vows for unity in a world of religious extremism.
Speaking in Hyde Park by the memorial to the victims, Miss Craig said: ‘Everyone in London remembers where they were on that day. Some of you lost loved ones, some of you were trying to get through to loved ones, some of you found a new reason for living.
‘But all of us lost our innocence on that day, our naivety, the thought that something like that can never happen to me or, even, to London.’
Wiping a tear and her voice breaking with emotion she said: ‘My background is a bit startling for others to come to terms with, as people had never really thought a 14-year- old, ten days before her 15th birthday, could be caught up in such a tragedy.
‘ I struggled a lot afterwards because I was scared of being weak and admitting I wasn’t fine, even at such a young age, a feeling most people here today will have felt in some way or other.
‘I kept remembering being terrified of stepping on the wooden slats of the train tracks in case the electric-
‘Scared to admit I wasn’t fine’
ity wasn’t turned off. I didn’t quite understand what was happening.
‘I managed to hold in my tears and act like the adult I was pretending to be until I got to the side of the platform at Aldgate and my mum rang me to check I was OK, because she’d heard that a bomb had gone off.
‘And I said, “Mum, I was there, I was on the Tube”.
‘Now I can’t stand up here and say as many have done before that the London bombings has had an effect on me that has changed my life positively. Because it was, and still is, very much a part of my growing up, my childhood, my adolescence.
‘But quite often people say, “It didn’t break us, that terrorism won’t break us”. The fact is, it may not have broken London, but it did break some of us.
‘Sometimes I feel that people are so hell-bent on trying to make a point about terrorism not breaking us that they forget about all the people that got caught up in it.
‘Not for my sake, but for those who were killed on that day and their families. They are the people we are here today to remember. May we never forget.’
There was spontaneous applause when Miss Craig, now 24, finished her short, moving speech.
She was living in Barnet, North London, and on her way to do work experience with a legal firm in Tower Hill when suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer, 22, detonated his device. The co-ordinated bombings also struck two other Tube trains, at King’s Cross and Edgware Road, and a bus in Tavistock Square.
After her speech, Miss Craig, now living in Slough and working in marketing, said: ‘Originally I didn’t want to talk to anyone about it for six years. Then I went to see someone about it. I have never really spoken publicly about it until today. I felt it was important.’
She was in the far end of the next carriage along from where the bomb went off and saw ‘all the injured people coming past us’.
She told how other people’s reaction had encapsulated the extraordinary spirit shown by Londoners that day. Recalling events after her mother had phoned and discovered she was caught up in the bombing, Miss Craig, who declined to give her mother’s name, said: ‘My mum was terrified. All the people in her office threw money at her.
‘One of the most poignant memories is that people came out of restaurants and gave us water, coffee and food. Everyone came together and helped those who needed it.’
She said she was fine about travelling on the Tube now and had done so soon after because ‘you have to’ if you live in London.
Later there were emotional scenes as more than 100 relatives of those who lost their lives and nearly 100 survivors hugged and held hands as they each laid single yellow gerberas – a flower said to symbolise innocence and purity – at the memorial, which features 52 steel pillars to represent each of the victims killed in the bombings.
Prince William then laid a bouquet among the floral tributes, and stood with his head bowed in a few moments of silent reflection. He later spent time chatting with victims’ relatives and survivors.
Earlier, a service of commemoration was held at St Paul’s Cathedral, and a minute’s silence was observed across London at 11.30am. In St Paul’s, the name of each of the 52 victims was read out, before rose petals began drifting gently down from the dome of the cathedral. Pink, red and white, they were intended as echoes of those who died, but also as symbols of how life, like flowers and nature, goes on.
It was the first time since the original memorial service for 7/7 was held at St Paul’s on November 1, 2005 that the petals were used in this way.
The Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, spoke of the ‘ocean of pain’ surrounding the loss of each victim, but also the ‘unifying agonised outcry’. The congregation included the Duke of York, Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson.