Posted on 07/07/2005 10:09:32 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Convinced she was dying, a Melbourne woman on the bombed Edgware train sent a text message to her daughter, whom she feared would be orphaned within moments.
Janne Palthe was in the third carriage, next to the ill-fated second-carriage which another eyewitness described as "charcoal".
"I thought we'd actually crashed into another tube (train), because there was this almighty bang," said the Armadale resident, who is in London for business.
"I was waiting for the (other) train to come through and thought I was going to die."
"I sat down and I wrote a long text message to my daughter on my mobile phone, saying `Sorry, mummy was in an accident, I died, you're going to stay with...' and whatever."
Ms Palthe, whose husband died in February, said she was scared her nine-year-old daughter Kat would become an orphan, but was reassured by a fellow passenger, David.
Ms Palthe was almost overcome by the "ghastly" smoke but was otherwise unhurt.
She and other passengers were finally evacuated about an hour after the blast.
'Covered in blood'
Melbourne architect Chris McCue, who was in carriage one, said most people around him were covered in blood.
"Everything was just so loud, and it was complete darkness for about 10 seconds before the emergency lights came on, so we didn't have any idea what was happening," he said.
"When the lights came back on we could see that most of the people immediately around me were covered in blood. One man was bleeding quite profusely from his ear and his arm.
"There was a lot of screaming from the carriage next to us, but we didn't know at that point that was the source of what had happened."
"It wasn't until we came past carriage two, that was completely burnt out, and we were walking over bits of the train and saw the bodies in the train that we realised it was a bomb.
Ripped like a Coke can
Another Australian eyewitness described the aftermath of a bomb exploding on a double-decker bus in Tavistock Place as like "someone had ripped open a Coke can".
Queenslander Trent Mongan _ who narrowly escaped injury in the Bali bombing _ was walking up the stairs at Kings Cross tube station with a friend when he saw smoke. He rushed to help the injured.
"The top of the bus was just gone . . . (it was) 50 yards in front of the bus," Mr Mongan said.
"It looked like a Coke can, like someone had ripped open a Coke can. I just thought - imagine the people that are in there. And I looked inside the bus and it was like people who have walked off the bus and maybe fallen down. There was just blood everywhere and the police had already locked that area off.
"I can't explain the devastation and the smell. I've been in the army and it's nothing like I've ever smelled . . . And then the smoke came out."
Mr Mongan was in Bali's Sari club on the day of the bombing. He left minutes before a bomb blast reduced it to rubble. He is now working in Sri Lanka, and is on holiday in London.
Mr Mongan said he tried to help survivors coming out of the bus by giving them water. "People were just walking around dazed and confused," he said.
Packed commuter trains hit
Barrister Angelo Power, 43, was on a packed London train when he heard two loud bangs and saw people next to him forced from their seats by the power of a large explosion.
"There were flashes of light and smoke," he said. "People started to scream and say prayers and break windows with their bare hands to get oxygen into the train."
Mr Power said the carriage was in darkness for up to 30 minutes before rescuers arrived.
"The smoke intensified and the screaming intensified," he said. "Smoke was coming out of the tunnel. We were all trapped like sardines waiting to die and I honestly thought my time was up."
Mr Power, who was in the second-last carriage, said he saw people with cuts on their faces and others lying on the floor of the carriage apparently suffering smoke inhalation.
Bewildered victims refuse help
Shocked, disorientated and with oil and pieces of debris in her hair and clothes, one woman asked for directions to Holborn but refused all offers of help.
One witness, Belinda Seabrook, said of the Russell Square blast: "I was on the bus in front and heard an incredible bang, I turned around and half the double-decker bus was in the air."
A slowly expanding police cordon pushed before it droves of confused office workers, evacuated from the surrounding streets. Traffic wardens, police support officers and private security guards were all drafted in to man the cordons.
The mobile phone networks quickly became jammed with callers trying to reassure loved ones of their safety, and shops filled with people begging the use of a phone.
Flames outside the window
Sarah Reid, a passenger on the train hit at Aldgate Station, described a sudden jolt forward.
"There was a really hard banging from the carriage next door to us after the explosion. That's where it happened. There was a fire beside me. I saw flames outside on the window of my carriage," Ms Reid said.
Loyita Worley, 49, was travelling on a train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate when a blast rocked the neighbouring carriage.
"There was a big bang and then all the ash. I could not breathe. It was falling down everywhere and over everything.
"Everyone was stunned for a moment. We could see a flickering light and everyone was terrified there was going to be a fire," she said.
Ms Worley described seeing wounded passengers. "There was blood dripping off them. They were all white."
Splintered metal
Bicycle courier Andrew Childes, 36, was near the bus blast.
"I heard a bang, a thudding deep sound," he said. "There was a big cloud of grey smoke. I was about 250 metres away at the time and I stopped dead in my tracks.
"I waited for a bit and then went to see what had happened. The bus was just splintered metal, and it was all bent over. The top part of the bus was completely exposed, as if the roof had been ripped off it," he said.
An unnamed witness told reporters he had been blown off his feet by the bus blast. "As I was crossing the road, I didn't even see the bus, but was knocked off my feet," he said.
"I looked up and could see people trying to climb down from the top of the bus," he said.
Witnesses said that after some initial signs of panic, most people calmed down and police were rapidly on the scene.
September 11 mayor caught near explosions
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was metres away from one of the deadly explosions, said the attacks were an "eerie reminder" of September 11.
Mr Giuliani said he was in a hotel near Liverpool Street Station when a bomb exploded on a train in a tunnel nearby.
"I could hear the sirens and then kept hearing reports of different bombing, in different parts of the city," he told Sky News.
"As we were walking through and driving through the streets of the city, it was remarkable how the people of London responded calmly and bravely."
Giuliani, who was widely praised for his calm and resolute leadership after the September 11 attacks, said New Yorkers would feel "tremendous empathy" with the people of London.
"I think every New Yorker would join me in saying we feel we very much understand what you are going through," he said.
Bumpin' your post!!!!
Guilani must feel like a schlitz magnet.
These animals have rescinded their place in the human race.
Annihilation.
This sounds a lot worse than what they've been telling us. The eye witnesses seem to be more truthful than the media in the UK.
That ought to cause a stir at a certain corporate HQ's PR department in the morning...
Probably the most unusual use of the past tense of all time.
I'm betting she was in no mood to contemplate the finer points of the English language.
The Islamfacist Terrorist scum better go back to the caves they slithered in from. I have a feeling that it's not going to be fun to be a terrorist in Afghanistan and Iraq over the next few days.
Hopefully these cowards will enjoy burning in hell soon.
Sort of like the mother writing her son at school and adding a P.S., "I meant to send you some money but I had already sealed the envelope."
Actually, I have a feeling it's not going to be fun to be of Arab/ME descent in the UK right NOW.
Muslims had better not so much as show up on London streets, else they be liable to be lynched.
Utter and total annihilation.
Nah, I was just remarking on the strange age we live in wherein it would actually be possible to transmit such a message.
We didn't lynch a single one in the US after 9/11. Nothing will happen to them in London.
Wouldn't a voice mail have been faster? It takes ages to send a long message like that on my phone.
I keep thinking of an ad campaign, huge billboards with a message in Arabic: God rewards terrorism with eternal damnation. Something catchy, with a backdrop of flames, to counteract the belief that such acts will be rewarded with 72 virgins. (Kind of strange, isn't it, that these terrorists who want to wipe us out for our decadent ways believe that their reward will be spending eternity in decadence.)
WE have given the Palestinians the promise of a state as a reward for bombings like this, and worse. What kind of a message does that send???
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