July 7 passengers left bus moments before blast

Unaware of the explosions on the underground network, the driver of the number 30 bus, George Psaradakis, could not understand what was holding up the roads and overcrowding buses that morning in 2005.

He made a diversion and announced the change to passengers, advising those whose destinations were nearby that they would be better off walking.

Between 30 and 50 stepped off, oblivious to the possibility that their lives could have been saved by doing so.

Giving evidence, he said: “Lots of people got off the bus… I pulled away slowly, at crawling speed. When I was near (two) traffic officers I opened my window and called them.

“I said to them ‘what is the name of this place?’… They said Tavistock Square, so I thanked them and tried to call my garage and then – bang. The explosion.”

“Everywhere I looked there were bodies.” Bus driver George Psaradakis

He told the inquest he thought he had hit something in the road, but it soon dawned on him that something devastating had occured.

“The windscreen blew away, debris fell all over me,” he said. “I was stunned, shocked. I touched my head and could only feel dust,” he said.

He managed to slump off the bus, and saw the road strewn with body parts.

Describing the scene, he said: “I saw a leg stuck to the wall (of the building opposite). I was so shocked but I kept going to the back of the bus to explore, to see what happened, and everywhere I looked there were bodies, torsos, two heads, two piles of human flesh.

“I kept looking if there is anybody I could help but again people were dismembered and all dying.”

Mr Psaradakis told how he had carried out his routine search of both floors of the double-decker before setting off on his route from Hackney Wick in north east London.

He said he had no recollection of suicide bomber Hasib Hussain getting on the bus because so many passengers had crammed through the doors, but he was unware of what was causing the chaos.

“I tried to decipher what was happening but I couldn’t imagine we were at the epicentre of a terrorist attack,” he said.

“I was a million miles away from that thought.”

In a statement released after he gave evidence, he said: “When I am asked to talk about July 7 2005, what immediately comes to my mind is all those innocent fellow citizens who lost their lives in such a gruesome and barbaric way while simply going about their legitimate business.

“I also remember the innocent men and women who suffered such horrific injuries.”

He added, poigniantly, his memories of “supreme human solidarity, unselfish altruism and solicitous unity from the citizens of our glorious capital.

“The good spirit of London routed the evil spirit of darkness on that terrible day.”

Survivor of two blasts

Earlier on today, the inquest heard survivor Louise Barry, who had narrowly escaped one of the Underground bombings, only to crawl out of the wreckage of the bus blast later.

She said she had received a text message from her boyfriend saying she had been lucky seconds before she was caught in a second blast.

Ms Barry was on the Underground at Edgware Road when Mohammed Sidique Khan detonated a backpack packed with homemade explosives on another train that had just left the station.

She was evacuated and ended up on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square.

Just before the blast, a fellow passenger mistakenly told her that the earlier disruption on the Tube was caused by a power surge.

Fellow Australian Sam Ly turned around to her, saying: “I’ve spoken to my boss at work… He was at that station and it’s a power surge.”

Mr Ly, 28, a Vietnamese-born computer technician from Melbourne, was severely injured in the blast and died in hospital a week later.

Ms Barry recalled that she and the other passengers discussed what had happened on the Tube and the previous day’s news that London had won the 2012 Olympics.

“It became kind of a social atmosphere, very unlike being on any public transport in London,” she told the inquest via videolink from Australia.

Ms Barry said the explosion on the bus was muffled, like being “deeply underwater”, and she at first thought she was having an epileptic fit.

“I couldn’t scream – I wanted to scream but no voice came out.” Passenger Louise Barry

She said: “I heard these voices: ‘Everything’s fine, tell her everything’s going to be OK, everything’s fine’.

“And I think they were the people on the bus that I had been talking to, so I thought they were looking at me having a seizure.”

Ms Barry regained consciousness when she felt boiling water from the bus’s radiator dripping on her arm.

Thinking that the water was petrol, she feared it could blow up and realised she had to get out.

“I was surrounded by bodies and I crawled through them, through the legs of people – that’s what it felt like,” she said.

“Then, as I was crawling through, I lost my shoes and my bag ripped off – I had a shoulder bag – and then I staggered up and suddenly it was gone, it was daylight.

“And then I was just standing at the back of the bus and I was looking around. I couldn’t scream – I wanted to scream but no voice came out.”
Ms Barry needed hospital treatment for wounds to her arm, leg and head, the inquest heard.

The inquest continues.