Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
RUNNING FOR THEIR LIVES:
PANICKING commuters trampled over each other in a bid to flee the fireball that ripped through their packed Tube train.
In a moment of pure terror, several were crushed as frantic workers and schoolchildren stampeded to escape the District Line carriage in Parsons Green yesterday.
Young children had been “packed like sardines” when the makeshift bucket bomb combusted.
The loud bang was followed by a moment of stunned silence as the air filled with a pungent chemical smell, before all hell broke loose.
Witnesses told of chaotic scenes following the terror blast in West London in the middle of rush hour.
Sarah Hickson, 31, who was crushed in the stampede, said: “People started shouting, ‘There’s a man, there’s a man’ and everyone started running. It was just sheer panic. A pregnant woman and a schoolboy in front of me were being crushed on the concrete stairs.”
Film editor Luke Walmsley, 32, said: “The girl opposite me got trodden on in the stampede – it was carnage.
“People were running for their lives. People got trod on, it was every man for himself. There was hysteria.
“The train was packed. There was a boy who looked pretty badly injured.”
Fitness instructor Olaniyi Shokunbi, 24, said: “There were people stampeding and jumping over barriers to get out. People were jumping from the higher level to the platform below.
“They were falling on other people and didn’t care if they broke bones.
“A little boy no older than 11 had scratches on his face and was looking for his little brother. There was a woman crying on the floor.”
Others told of the horrifying moment their morning commute turned into a terror nightmare.
Lauren Hubbard, 24, said: “I heard a loud bang. A wall of fire came towards me. I could feel the heat.”
Rory Rigney was just a few feet from the bomb when it went off.
He said: “It sounded like a smash, then I heard a scream. Then I saw the fireball coming towards me, yellow or orange.
“It smelled like a fire extinguisher, and there was this foam on the floor.”
He saw “red wires” poking from the melted bucket.
He jumped off the train through the open doors then looked back to see people “falling on top of each other”.
Chris Wildish said: “First there was a very strong, acrid chemical smell, and then a stampede. It was pretty scary. All you see is a wave of people screaming, running towards you.”
Peter Crowley was caught by the fireball and posted pictures of his singed scalp on social media. He said: “It was a really hot intense fireball above my head. I’ve just got red marks and burns to the top of my head. There were a lot of people a lot worse.
“I saw a gentleman opposite me in a puffer jacket, and the whole back of that had been burned where the intense heat had got to it – he had burn marks across his face which are looking a lot worse than mine.”
South African Gillian Wixley, 36, was eight seats from the explosion. She said: “It was chaotic. Things were flying everywhere and people were falling over as they got off.
“There were lots of people panicking and people were injured due to the crush.
“I heard a girl screaming, ‘Get off the train!’ Everyone rushed out and as I looked back I could see flames going up the wall.
“One woman came up and I could see that the whole of her hair on one side was singed. She
was holding her ear and saying: ‘I have to get out.’ Everyone was very emotional. There was one boy, maybe aged 10, who was commuting to school on his own. He was sitting on the floor sobbing.
“He was obviously in shock and very scared. Everyone around him was trying to calm him down and help him.”
Georgia Anile, 20, saw an injured woman being stretchered away. She said:
“She had burns on her legs and a charred hairline, it was horrible to see. She looked badly injured but was conscious. The medics were preparing to take more people off.”
Another witness said: “There were loads of people crying and shaking. There were a lot of people limping and covered in blood. One guy I saw, his face was covered in blood – I’ve never seen anything like it.”
NHS England said most of the victims suffered only “minor injuries” and were receiving treatment at St Mary’s, St Thomas’s and the Chelsea and Westminster hospitals and the Central London Community Healthcare Walk-in Centre in Parsons Green.
Some of the injured presented themselves, while 18 were taken to hospital by ambulance. It is understood around 10 of the injured suffered flash burns.
Natasha Wills of the London Ambulance Service said: “We sent a number of ambulance crews to the scene as well as our Hazardous Area Response Team and incident response officers. They were supported by a dedicated team in our incident control room.
“We arrived on scene in five minutes of the first 999 call and worked closely with our colleagues from the Metropolitan Police, British Transport Police and London Fire Brigade making sure patients received the medical help they needed as quickly as possible.”
At around 1pm, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which earlier declared a major incident at St Mary’s Hospital to deal with the attack, tweeted: “St Mary’s Hospital has now been stood down from the major incident.” A statement from St Thomas’s said at 4pm: “All eight patients treated at St Thomas’s Hospital following the terrorist incident at Parsons Green this morning have been treated and safely discharged.” Pupils at Lady Margaret School near Parson’s Green station were kept in lockdown for much of the day as it was within the police cordon area. Zebedee Nursery School was evacuated under armed guard, as was Kensington Prep School.
Local restaurant owner Teo Catino, 52, whose family were evacuated from their home, handed out over 200 free pizzas to emergency services working at the scene.
A boy of 10 was on the floor sobbing, in shock and scared GILLIAN WIXLEY EYE WITNESS ON BLAST TUBE