Survivor of 7/7 attacks found dead hours after Manchester bombing
A man who survived the 2005 terror attacks in London was found dead at his home just hours after Manchester bomber Salman Abedi blew himself up, killing 22 people, at an Ariana Grande concert last week. Friends of Tony Walter, 52, say he took his own life because he “didn’t want to live in a world where these terror attacks continue”. One friend claimed he was the “23rd victim” of the Manchester Arena bombing.
Mr Walter was just yards away from bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan in the Tube carriage that blew up on 7 July 12 years ago. The blast, which rocked the train after leaving Edgware Road station, killed seven people, including Khan. Mr Walter suffered multiple shrapnel injuries.
His friends claimed the most recent attack in Manchester, combined with the stabbing at Westminster in March, triggered traumatic memories. “Everyone is distraught by Tony taking his life. After the Westminster attack he really struggled,” an unnamed friend of Mr Walter told The Sun. “He was off work for a few days saying he couldn’t cope with how it brought back the memories of 7/7.” Mr Walter returned to work after the Westminster attack but colleagues at London firm The Legal 500, where he had worked for 17 years, said he seemed “withdrawn”. When he did not come to work after the Manchester attack, colleagues contacted the police, worried for his safety.
Mr Walter told a 7/7 inquest in 2011 that as the bomb exploded, “I remember feeling that I was being electrocuted from my feet up.” He explained that he saw one man lying dead on the floor and there was a hole in the back of the train. He said the driver guided him and fellow passengers through the back of the train to escape.
The Edgware road explosion was one of four bombs that were detonated across London on the same day, killing 52 people and injuring more than 700.