July 7 inquest hears from Tavistock Square bus survivors
A woman who survived the number 30 bus bomb in Tavistock Square tells the July 7 inquiry how she found her friend’s body shortly after the blast.
Camille Scott-Bradshaw gave her evidence over video link, telling the inquest into the deaths of the 52 bomb victims of the moment when she saw Marie Hartley’s body. The women had travelled to London from their homes in Lancashire to see an exhibition and were sitting just feet from 18 year old Hasib Hussein when he detonated his bomb.
Ms Scott-Bradshaw was blown from her seat on the top deck and said she felt as though she was ‘floating through air’ before she landed on the road. Despite having serious injuries to her leg she began looking for her friend.
She told the court: “I asked people if they knew where Marie was. I just remember looking over and I think, in the corner there were bodies and I could just see, I could see Marie. I just knew it was Marie because I could see her hair, her bracelet and her arms.”
Tavistock Square blast
Ms Hartley, 34, from Oswaldtwistle, was among 13 people killed by the bomb at Tavistock Square.
The inquest began hearing evidence from victims of the bus bomb last week. It has already heard from the bus driver George Psaradsakis who described letting up to 50 people off the bus just before the explosion, because the route had been diverted after the earlier tube bombings.
Some of the passengers had also been diverted from their intended routes. Last week Australian Louise Barry told the court that her boyfriend had just texted her to say she had been lucky to escape the bombs when the number 30 exploded. She needed hospital treatment for wounds to her arm, leg and head.
The inquest is expected to hear later from some of the first police officers to arrive on the scene after the bus exploded.