London bombing survivors ‘waited an hour’ for ambulance

Cynthia Chetty told the inquest into the deaths of 52 people that she thought she had been electrocuted when a bomb was detonated on the Circle Line train at Aldgate station.

“I remember first of all it was like a clicking sound and then there was just a bright white light that seemed to go on for quite a while.

“I could hear screaming and I could smell smoke and I remember reaching out to try to stand up, and I couldn’t move, I was stuck in the chair” –Cynthia Chetty, 7/7 survivor

“During that white light, I thought it was only me affected – maybe there was a power failure or something and I was being electrocuted, that’s what I thought,” she said.

Head injuries
Ms Chetty – who suffered head injuries- was helped off the train by a fellow passenger.

“I could hear screaming and I could smell smoke and I remember reaching out to try to stand up, and I couldn’t move, I was stuck in the chair.

But she said she did not see any London Underground staff until she reached the platform and she then waited for an hour before an ambulance arrived to take her to hospital.

“I know we kept asking: ‘Where are the ambulances? When are they coming?’

“And because of all the chaos, people say: ‘They’re on their way, they’re on their way, they’re on their way’.”

Confusion
She described her confusion in the moments after suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his device.

“I could hear screaming and I could smell smoke and I remember reaching out to try to stand up, and I couldn’t move, I was stuck in the chair.

“Then everything just went black straight after that and I think I must have passed out or lost consciousness or something.

“When I woke up, I remember the carriage was full of smoke, completely dark and it was just chaos everywhere.

“But my hearing had gone so everything was really, really faint and I just remember looking round and some people were sitting, some people were on the floor, it was just a shock to see what I had seen.”

“I tried to stand up and fell over….I lifted my right leg to find out why I’d fallen over and my leg had gone” Andrew Brown, 7/7 survivor

Another survivor, airport worker Andrew Brown, told the inquest he was on his way to an aiport operators’ meeting at Westminster when the bomb went off.

Lost consciousness
Mr Brown told the court he lost consciousness and woke to find he was on his back half way out a broken window.

He said he was being electrocuted and when the current stopped he fell into the carriage and tried to get up.

“I tried to stand up and fell over….I lifted my right leg to find out why I’d fallen over and my leg had gone and then inevitably I was just resigned to sitting there and waiting to be rescued,” he said.

Tourniquet
Fellow passenger and off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy used a jacket to tie around Mr Brown’s leg as a tourniquet.

Ms Kenworthy, who received an MBE for assisting her fellow passengers, said she was not sure why it took so long for emergency services to arrive.

“By 20 past nine I was starting to think..where are they? Because by that time I had nothing else to do but comfort them and wonder when help was going to arrive.”

Ms Kenworthy also came to the aid of Martine Wiltshire, formerly Wright, using a belt to tourniquet her legs.

“I know in my head that she saved my life,” said Ms Wiltshire, who had both legs amputated from the knee down after being injured in the blast.

“We were all screaming and I think at that point I just kept saying ‘My name is Martine Wright. Tell my family I’m ok.'”

Ms Wright is now training for the 2012 Paralympic Games and hopes to be named in the women’s sitting volleyball team.