I looked Tube terrorist in the eye on 21/7 and knew he wanted mass murder – what happened next still haunts me 20 yrs on

Scottish Sun

6 days ago

The manhunt that followed the botched attack set off a chain of events that led to the tragic shooting of Brazilian citizen Jean Charles de Menezes, who was misidentified
TUBE TERROR I looked Tube terrorist in the eye on 21/7 and knew he wanted mass murder – what happened next still haunts me 20 yrs on
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WHEN terrorist Ramzi Mohammed tried to detonate a bomb on London's Northern Line, only one person was brave enough to face him down.
Passenger Angus Campbell stood his ground in the smoke-filled train carriage and ordered the suicidal extremist to drop to the floor.
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Tube passenger Angus Campbell ordered terrorist Ramzi Mohammed to drop to the floor after he tried to detonate a bomb on London's Northern Line
Credit: Dan Charity
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CCTV shows Ramzi (circled in yellow) running away along the Tube platform at Oval station after he attempted the atrocity
Credit: Enterprise News and Pictures
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Mohammed is responsible for the botched explosion in a tunnel near Oval station in South London on July 21, 2005
Credit: check copyright
Amid the confusion, father-of-three Angus had originally mistaken Mohammed for a victim of the attack on July 21, 2005, and was about to reach out and help him.
But after ushering mum Nadia Baro and her nine-month-old son to safety in the next carriage, he realised the man before him was responsible for the botched explosion in a tunnel close to Oval station, South London.
Now — 20 years on from the attempted atrocity — Angus, 61, of nearby Tooting, recalled how his fury at Mohammed's bid to kill an innocent woman and child gave him the courage to fight back.
He said: 'I realised, 'This is someone trying to commit mass murder', and it's difficult to describe the fear.
'But it's a hollowness, like butterflies in the bottom of your stomach.
'He got on the Tube and looked around and he must have seen he was in close proximity to a woman and child. He stood next to them and went bang. How is that a war? How do you justify that?
'He intended to kill women and children — what's that all about?
'That's not a fair fight, that's not courage. That's cowardice. How dare you be that cowardly.'
'Bolts and nails'
Mohammed, then 23, and three accomplices were trying to replicate the 7/7 bombings that had left 52 dead two weeks earlier.
They attempted to detonate devices on the Tube at Shepherd's Bush, Warren Street and just outside Oval station. A fourth device was intended to go off on the number 26 bus route in Haggerston, East London.
But while the detonators on the devices fired, the main charges did not explode. As a result, there was only one reported injury.
7/7 survivor Dan Biddle and his rescuer Adrian interview
The ensuing manhunt — described by the late Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair as 'the greatest operational challenge ever faced' by the Met — set off a chain of events that led to the tragic shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.
He was mistaken for a would-be suicide bomber in one of the force's most notorious botched operations, shot and killed by officers at Stockwell Tube station on July 22, 2005.
Within days, the real suspects were arrested and, two years later, Mohammed, along with Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yasin Hassan Omar and Hussain Osman, was found guilty of conspiracy to murder.
Each was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum of 40 years.
Angus's incredible courage in confronting Mohammed summed up the mood in the capital after the 2005 bombings as people united against terrorism — a defiance that inspired the We're Not Afraid campaign.
On the day the terror plotters struck, firefighter Angus had been running slightly late to take a training day at Southwark fire station when he boarded the 'relatively empty' carriage at Tooting just after midday.
As the train was rocked by Mohammed's malfunctioned blast, the hero set aside concerns for his own safety to sound the alarm — then confront the extremist himself.
Describing the horrifying attack, Angus, who retired in 2015, said: 'There was just the woman in front of me with her buggy and the kid was messing around.
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Ramzi pictured on the tube carriage before he tried to detonate his rucksack bomb
Credit: Central News
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Mohammed, above escaping from the scene after the attack, and three accomplices were trying to imitate the 7/7 bombings that had left 52 dead two weeks earlier
Credit: Metropolitan Police
'She got cross with him and put him in the buggy and he didn't want to be in there. We stopped at Stockwell and quite a lot of people got on from the Victoria line, including the bomber.
"The moment we entered the tunnel a bang went off and it really reverberated because we were in a confined space and the carriage filled with white smoke.
'People were running like you wouldn't believe and (the bomber) was screaming, but the buggy was caught between the stanchions and she couldn't move it.
'I got hold of the buggy and Nadia hit me, she was so panicked. I said, 'No, let me help you'.
'We untangled it and, if you look at the CCTV, you can see we are clinging to each other as we move backwards down the Tube.
'We got to the doors and I thought one man was going to help me, but he didn't, he skipped through. I pushed Nadia through the doors and then I turned round to go and help the man I now know as Ramzi Mohammed.'
He had pulled the alarm as he ushered Nadia to the neighbouring carriage and the Tube slowed down.
He intended to kill women and children — what's that all about? That's not a fair fight, that's not courage. That's cowardice
The scene that then unfolded before Angus still haunts him. He explained: 'I slowly walked towards him (Mohammed) and I could smell what I thought was burning hair.
'He started getting really aggressive and said, 'I'm going to kill you' a number of times.
'I was shouting at him, 'Lie the f*** down'. He pointed at me and said, 'You are wrong and this is all wrong'.
'I looked down at the rucksack and saw this yellow mass popping and fizzing, and within that is nuts and bolts and nails.
"I realised, 'OK this is serious'. I started taking big steps back and both doors had now shut so I really was on my own.
"The train driver comes on the Tannoy and there was a little microphone, and I scream into it, 'It's me! Don't open the doors, we've got him, get the police'.
'The bomber starts kicking and prying at the doors and getting really aggressive when all of a sudden, the doors open and he goes.'
'Deprived of a dad'
The confrontation became a key scene in this year's Disney+ drama, Suspect: The Shooting Of Jean Charles De Menezes.
A day after the failed bombings, the 27-year-old was wrongly pinpointed as one of the terrorists and tailed by cops, before officers fatally shot him in the head at Stockwell.
Angus has fretted that if the train doors had not opened, and if he had managed to detain Mohammed, de Menezes' life might have been spared.
But he refuses to blame London Underground for what happened.
He said: 'All I had to do was hold on to him, and someone on the platform might have been able to help me keep him there, but I doubt it. He was young and scared and he took off.
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Father-of-three Angus, 61, recalls how his fury at Mohammed's bid to kill an innocent woman and her child gave him the courage to fight back
Credit: Dan Charity
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'Everyone says, 'Why didn't you tw*t him on the nose?'. But I was really frightened, and it's important to have the balls to admit that. I was scared, of course I was. It was frustrating they opened the doors because we had him.
'He wasn't going to come past me and get back to the passengers he had already tried to kill.
'He was trapped and I was bigger than him.
I looked down at the rucksack and saw this yellow mass popping and fizzing, and within that is nuts and bolts and nails. I realised, 'OK this is serious'
'As he ran away I shouted, 'Stop him,' and a few people tried. One old boy tried to trip him up and another geezer tried to grab him.
'Good for them, but he was long gone.'
Acknowledging how devastating the consequences could have been if Mohammed's bomb had detonated, Angus said: 'I should be part of the Northern Line.
'I would have been sprayed all over that carriage, we were that close.
'My youngest son was six weeks old on July 21 and I would never have known him and he would never have known me.
'He's now 20 and doing fine at university and having a fantastic life, but he would have been denied a parent for all that time if Ramzi Mohammed had succeeded.
"That's awful, isn't it? He would have been deprived of a dad and my wife and children would have suffered hugely if I had been taken away from them.
'To be denied 20 years just because of someone's ideology — it's not right and, with hindsight, there is real anger.
'I think, 'What gives you the right to do this to others and me? I've done nothing to you'.'
Angus, who was reunited with Nadia at the would-be bombers' 2007 trial, now works as a tour guide in the capital.
Not only does he regularly take the Tube, he often sits in the exact spot where he could have died.
He said: 'I get the Tube all the time and I often sit in the same seat, third carriage down, main doors, second seat on the right.
'I think it's important because, if I was to avoid it, that means he's winning, doesn't it?
I get the Tube all the time and I often sit in the same seat, third carriage down, main doors, second seat on the right. I think it's important because, if I was to avoid it, that means he's winning, doesn't it?
'Sometimes, it can be difficult. If someone gets on the Tube with a big rucksack and sits in close proximity to me, I can get fidgety.
'And it takes huge self-discipline not to get up and move myself away.
'But sitting in that seat is winning. If you change your behaviour, then they win.'
Angus, who thanked The Sun for commending his bravery in our leaders column, added: 'We British are quite reserved, but there's something about us.
'It's called backbone, and we've got a lot of that, we really have."
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Muktar Said Ibrahim, left, and Ramzi Mohammed, right, being arrested on July 29th 2005
Credit: check copyright