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Daily Mail
07-07-2025
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE 'I felt someone staring at me on the Tube. Before I could say anything he detonated himself... I landed on the tracks, on fire. I remember thinking, this should hurt more': The astonishing words of the most badly hurt man to SURVIVE 7/7
'Whenever I do interviews, people go, Oh, I don't want to take you back to that dark place of the day. That's where I live. That's where I am 24-7. 'It's as if the bombing happened 30 seconds ago, not 20 years ago. My brain still can't fully process what happened that day. 'I suffer from night terrors, flashbacks, panic attacks, depression, and it all stems from what happened that day, trying to live with that trauma. At times, it feels like life is worse than death.' Those are the chilling words of Dan Biddle, the most seriously injured survivor of the 7/7 bombings, as he relives the moment which changed his life forever, when he locked eyes with a suicide bomber who blew himself up in the London underground. It happened on a busy summer's morning in London, in 2005. Four terrorists, each carrying a rucksack packed with explosives, unleashed hell on the capital, blowing up three Tube trains and a double-decker bus in the deadliest Islamic terror attack in British history, claiming the lives of 56 people and injuring hundreds more. Dan was carried out, bloodied, burnt, his eye and both his legs blown off, with a two per cent survival chance. And despite the miracle of still being alive following such a brutal experience, 20 years on, while his physical wounds may have healed, the mental scars run just as deep. The ghosts of that dark July morning still haunt him, in his sleep, in his thoughts, and in every silent moment. That Thursday morning started like most days for the then-26-year-old, working on a construction site early in the morning. He said: 'I woke up at my normal time, about quarter past five in the morning. I had a really bad migraine and didn't feel very well, so I decided that I'd go back to sleep. 'Then, when I woke up later on, I'd ring in sick and let the guys know that I wasn't coming in. 'I woke up about an hour later and felt better, so I decided that I'd get myself up, have a shower, and take myself off to work.' That day, everything seemed to conspire against Dan Biddle. By the time he left his house in Romford, Essex, he was already running 90 minutes behind. A small delay, which would end up setting the course of events in motion. A bus was waiting just around the corner, an unexpected bit of luck, or so it seemed. But it only made it a short distance before a burst water main halted everything. Dan sat there, torn between returning home to fetch his car and waiting it out. He chose to stay. Finally reaching Romford station, he moved through his usual commute: Romford to Liverpool Street, then on to Baker Street, and from there, the Bakerloo line to Wembley Central and then to the site. A route he'd taken countless times. But nothing about that morning was routine. As he climbed the stairs to the platform, he realised he'd forgotten his travel card which forced to rely on a ticket machine. Eventually, he boarded a fast train to Liverpool Street. A silver lining, or so he thought, until a signal failure at Stratford delayed them again. 'Normally I would have bought a cup of coffee, a sandwich, a newspaper, a couple of cans of Red Bull and a couple of Mars bars just to get me through the day. I didn't do any of that. I just ran straight through the concourse, put my ticket into the ticket barrier. 'As I'm coming down the steps onto the Circle Line platform, there was a train already on the platform and it was heaving. 'And I just decided that I'd just wait for the next one. I was late anyway, so a couple of minutes wasn't going to make a difference.' As he gets into the carriage packed with commuters going about their everyday business, it catches his attention. 'I remember we pulled into King's Cross Station, and I saw a guy get on at the front of the carriage I was in. 'He walked past me, went to the far end of the train, and basically stayed there. 'He had a baseball cap on, a parka-ish looking jacket, blue jeans, and was carrying a rucksack. 'He also had a beard, but it was a tightly shaven beard. It wasn't really long or out of control; it was neatly trimmed.' The man, who ended up sitting inches from Dan, was bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan. Dan went on: 'And then I just saw him walk back past me and he sat down next to where I was standing. 'And at the time, I was training up a young site manager on the site I was running. So I had the idea of typing a text message in my phone, getting off at Baker Street, running outside the station, sending a message, coming back in, getting the next train and finishing my journey.' He looked down to his phone, frantically typing up a message, but misses his stop, but quickly works out quickly he can stop at Paddington and change to the Bakerloo Line. They're now at Edgware Road station, and the train's doors have just closed and it's about to go into the tunnel. 'The train pulled out of Edgware Road Station, and we travelled a little way into the tunnel when I felt somebody staring at me. I looked around, and the guy sitting next to where I was standing was just staring at me. I thought it was a bit odd, but I went back to what I was doing. 'It was almost like he was looking through me. It was just this intense stare, as if he was looking right through me. 'Then, when I saw him lean forward and look down the carriage, he sat back and started staring at me again. He began to make me feel a little uneasy because he was staring at me so much. 'I was about to turn around and say, "What's your problem, mate? What are you looking at? Then I saw him reach into the bag, and suddenly there was a big white flash, an immense amount of heat, and a huge shockwave hit me. 'It blew me off the train. I hit the tunnel wall and landed in the crawl space between the tunnel wall and the track.' His first instinct was that there had been an electrical explosion and that Dan was thrown off the train by the shockwave hit the tunnel wall and landed in the space between the tunnel wall and the tracks. 'I realised I had landed in a prime position with my arms above my head. When I brought my arms down, both my arms and hands were on fire. I just lay there looking at them, thinking, "Surely this should hurt more". It stung, but it wasn't excruciating. 'I literally watched the flames go out, then looked around to see what was going on. 'That's when I saw the first dead body behind me, and everywhere I looked after that, the horrors just got worse.' In the shocking seconds after the blast, Dan says there was a deadly silence, no screams, just stunned confusion. Survivors lay tangled with the dead, everyone desperate to make sense of the horror unfolding around them. The terrifying stillness screamed louder than any explosion, as panic and disbelief battled for hold in those heart-stopping moments. 'You could have heard a pin drop in that tunnel,' the 46-year-old said. 'It was like there was the blast and then it was almost like everybody had took an intake of breath and waited for somebody to make a noise. 'And when one person did, it was like opening the gates of hell. The screams, the crying, the fear, it just all kind of hit like a tsunami.' This was the second blast of three, which were all carried out within 50 seconds of each other, with the first happening on a Circle line train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate and then on a Piccadilly Line service which had just departed King's Cross St Pancras. Soon after this, it became apparent that Dan had the catastrophic and life-changing injuries he had sustained. His left leg had been completely blown off, whilst the bones on his right leg were shattered from the knee down. His liver, colon, bowel and kidney had all been lacerated by a pole which went through his body whilst also suffering similar injuries to his head and mouth. Frankly, it was a miracle he was still alive, and in the middle of all that, he was trapped under debris. It was during this time that he heard a voice out of the darkness, 'What's your name?' It was Adrian who promised, 'Keep talking to me, I'll find you.' Adrian, severely injured himself - he'd dislocated his shoulder, broken ribs, and had a deep head wound - had crawled under the train to reach Dan. A former Austrian combat medic with Kosovo experience, the man calmly lifted debris, assessed Dan's injuries. 'He knew exactly what to do. When he found me, he lifted the debris off and assessed my injuries. 'The first thing he said was, "I've been in this situation before and never lost anyone". Then he asked, "Do you have anything I don't want to catch?" I replied, "No, all good". 'He knelt down in front of me and said, "I'm not going to lie to you, this is really going to f***ing hurt". 'With that, he forced his hand into what was left of my left leg, found the femoral artery, pinched it shut, and stopped me from bleeding to death.' For 40 agonising minutes, Dan and dozens of others lay motionless on the tracks in the pitch-black tunnel with time stretching like minutes, not seconds. 'A minute felt like a week. It was a horrendous wait. I thought I was going to die. The atmosphere down there was fear and panic, and nobody knew what had gone on. 'People just wanted to get out. And it was terrifying. There's no other way to describe it. It was absolutely terrifying.' Four terrorists, each carrying a rucksack packed with explosives, unleashed hell on the capital, blowing up three Tube trains and a double-decker bus in the deadliest Islamic terror attack in British history As paramedics descended into the tunnel and found him, they quickly rushed to get him out as soon as possible. They spent a long time pumping fluids and painkillers into him and then secured him onto a scoop stretcher and began the slow process of getting me out of the tunnel. It was only as he emerged from the station that Dan finally got a sense of the magnitude of what had happened. He was rushed to St Mary's Hospital, and there began an almost year-long process of recovery for him. He was sedated, had three cardiac arrests, all three in which he had to be resuscitated and had 87 units of blood; he had his left leg amputated near his hip, while the right leg was amputated through the knee. He was treated for burns and was in a coma for eight weeks, and during that even contracted a rare infection from bacteria which had been kept in the Victorian tunnels. He was in intensive care for 12 weeks and in the hospital for 51 weeks, and he was finally discharged on June 30, 2006. '[The doctors] can't understand how I'm still alive. 'The lead consultant who looked after me at St Mary's was a gentleman called Duncan Black. And Duncan's South African, and he said over the course of his career, he's dealt with landmine injuries, gunshot wounds, and machete attacks, all during apartheid in South Africa. 'And he basically said to my parents that any one of my injuries singly should kill me. How I'm still alive, he had no idea.' In the years that followed, he struggled with mental health after witnessing the horror of that day, and when he reached out to mental health teams at the time, he was told that it would be 18 months before he could see a clinician. It was only after seven years and three suicide attempts that he was able to get the support he desperately needed. But 20 years on, he still finds himself re-living that awful day. 'I've not slept properly for almost 20 years now. I have night terrors constantly. If I sleep for more than four hours a night, I've done well. 'And it's never four hours solid. It's four hours of broken sleep. And I just have nightmares. The 7-7 is like a horror movie on repeat in my head that I can't turn off.' On the 20th anniversary of the attacks, the now-married 46-year-old, who has published a book called ' Back From The Dead ' on his horrific experience which changed his life forever, is calling for a full inquiry into how the attacks slipped through the net. Despite calls from survivors, families, no full public inquiry has ever taken place. Instead, in 2006, the government released a Home Office narrative report, a summary of the attacks and what was known but critics slammed it as a whitewash. Then came the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) reports in 2006 and 2009, which admitted 'missed opportunities' by MI5, but still no courtroom-style public inquiry. In 2011, a coroner's inquest into the deaths of the victims finally gave more details and found that the attacks could not have been prevented, but MI5's decisions were open to criticism. He added: 'I don't have any form of closure. It's still as raw and as painful now as it was when it happened. 'I think closure comes when you get some understanding of how this could happen. And we've never had a public inquiry into 7-7. So you can't get closure until you have some understanding as to how this happens and how these individuals can slip through the net and carry out these atrocities. 'So when we talk about closure, I don't think anybody would ever fully get closure from the day. 'But I certainly think if we knew what had gone wrong, if we knew what the failings were and things like that, you get some understanding of how it happened. But unfortunately, the government have treated most of us who were there on 7-7 with utter contempt, and they won't do a public inquiry, so they're just happy for us to keep suffering.'
South Wales Argus
07-07-2025
- Politics
- South Wales Argus
Abergavenny man hit by 7/7 bomb calls for public inquiry
Dan Biddle, from Abergavenny, who lost both legs in the blast on a Tube train at Edgware Road on July 7, 2005, has spoken out on the 20th anniversary of the attacks, which killed 52 people and injured more than 700. Mr Biddle has described the long-lasting trauma of the day and criticised the Government's handling of the aftermath. Talking to GB News, he said: "The Dan Biddle that I was at 8.52 on July 7 died at 8.52 on the 7th of July and I've had to reinvent myself and everything that I was trying to do. "I've had to start afresh, and I've been incredibly lucky that my wife Gem is an amazing support and gets me through so much of it." Mr Biddle, a former Pride of Gwent winner, has also criticised the Government's decision not to hold a public inquiry. He said: "After 7/7, me and a lot of other people were calling for a public inquiry. "We constantly have that shut down. "And I think the reason I don't think London is any safer is because we didn't have the public inquiry." Dan Biddle was named a Pride of Gwent winner in 2018 He has compared the lack of a 7/7 inquiry with other major incidents. He said: "If you jump forward a few years, the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes had a public inquiry. "The Manchester attack had a public inquiry. "Grenfell had a public inquiry. "All were absolutely wonderful and deserved it. "7/7 was the first attack of its kind in this country. "It was the biggest loss of life in a terrorist attack. "It was a first suicide attack, and there were clear failings, yet no public inquiry." Mr Biddle has also challenged the Government's narrative about the attack. He said: "I think they're naïve given the arrogance of Tony Blair to think that you can go to war in a Middle Eastern country and it not have any repercussions on home soil. "I think the fact that when Blair was interviewed, he turned around and said that there is no link between al-Qaeda and the 7/7 attacks, yet when Khan made his suicide video, he openly states that that is the reason." Dan Biddle with his wife Gemma Mr Biddle has now written a book about his experience, Back From the Dead: The Untold Story of the 7/7 Bombings. He said: "I wanted to write a book to hopefully for somebody that's struggling to read that and go, yeah, there is a way through with the right support and the right people, I can potentially come through the other side of it." He has also reflected on the personal choices that put him on the train that morning. He said: "There's countless times where, if I'd have made a different decision, then I wouldn't have been on that train at that time. "If I'd have got up on time, if I'd missed my stop. "There's so many things that I can think back on and think if I knew, I'd have done this, if I never done that, but it serves no purpose now, because what's happened has happened."
Daily Mirror
07-07-2025
- Daily Mirror
'I was about to ask 7/7 bomber five-word question before it all changed'
Dan Biddle was six inches away from 7/7 bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan when the terrorist detonated his bomb. Moments before the devastating explosion, Dan was about to ask why he was acting so strangely 7/7 survivor Dan Biddle recalls terrifying attack Project Manager Dan Biddle had almost decided to call in sick on the morning of July 7, 2005, but decided to drag himself in to work. To make matters worse, he had missed his stop. The train had just left Edgware Road Underground station and he was standing up, trying to hold on with one hand while attempting to type a text message to colleagues using the clumsy interface of an early 2000s Nokia. 'Big man, big hands, small phone, complete carnage,' he recalled. Dan was also wondering why a sullen-looking man in the same Tube carriage was staring at him. Speaking on Netflix 's Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, Dan recalled that he was on the brink of asking the stranger 'Is there a problem, mate?', when there was a blinding flash of light. 'It was like opening the gates of hell,' Dan said. The stranger, Mohammad Sidique Khan, had detonated a powerful explosive device – unleashing devastating destructive force within the narrow confines of the tube train. Dan very quickly realised he was badly injured, and recalls thinking: 'I'm not frightened of death, but dying alone terrifies me.' Bombarded with shrapnel from the blast, Dan had lost both legs, an eye, and his spleen. A 20p piece is still lodged in his thigh bone, and other fragments of metal, including his door keys, were removed by surgeons. He almost certainly would have died in the minutes after the blast, had it not been for fellow-passenger Adrian Heili. The burly South African was a former military medic and gave Dan vital, but painful first aid. 'He said, 'I am not going to lie to you but this is really going to f***ing hurt.' One thing Adrian isn't is a liar,' Dan said. Appearing on This Morning, Dan recalled how that split second changed his life forever: 'I was just a normal 26-year-old young man. I worked in the construction industry. I was very sporty, very active. 'Just like anybody of that sort of age, I enjoyed socialising with my friends and I played a lot of sport. "I had a job that I loved and I was really breaking through into the construction industry. So in my mind, the life that I was looking forward to leading was mapped out in front of me. But then everything changed.' He added that he had 'locked eyes' with the bomber moments before the blast: 'It was really strange, because I could... I was standing up and he was sat next to me. So we were probably no more than about six inches apart.' It's not unusual for someone to look at a stranger who's near them on a tube train, Dan said, but the other man's staring had gone on for so long that it was starting to feel 'uncomfortable.' Just as Dan was about to ask Khan whether there was some sort of problem, he saw another man put a hand inside his backpack. Within a fraction of a second, Dan felt scorching heat, as well as seeing the blinding white flash of the explosion. The force of the blast was powerful enough to blow him through the train's doors and into the tunnel. 'At first, I thought there'd been either a train collision or an electrical explosion because of the white flash,' Dan said. He added that for a moment, he didn't realise how badly hurt he was, but then, as he lifted his arms, he saw his hands were on fire and the full horror of the situation began to dawn on him. 'Then I made the mistake of trying to look around. And that's when I saw the first dead body and it was just absolute hell on earth after that.' The four co-ordinated 7/7 attacks killed 52 and injured over 770. Seven people, including Khan himself, died in the explosion on that Circle Line train alone. Adrian Heili had served with the Austrian army in the Kosovo conflict, and had experience in dealing with battlefield injuries. He reacted immediately after the explosion, telling fellow-passengers to lie down and cover their mouths to prevent damage to their lungs from smoke inhalation. He told an inquest how he started moving though the train, looking for casualties. As he made his way towards Dan, who was screaming out in agony at that point, he caught sight of another man who was clearly dead: "It's the hardest decision I've had to make, where ... you have to distinguish who you can save and who you can't save," he told the coroner. After passing numerous bodies and "fragments of bodies" he finally found Dan. Adrian recalled: "I noticed that [he] was missing a leg, there was also blood coming out of his femoral artery, which I closed with my thumb and forefinger". Using his belt and a piece of fabric torn from his shirt, Adrian improvised tourniquets to lessen Dan's bleeding. Adrian stayed with Dan, keeping him talking about sport to prevent him from slipping into unconsciousness. After paramedics arrived and carried Dan to safety, Adrian continued to help with the rescue effort. He was the last person to leave the train.
Scottish Sun
06-07-2025
- General
- Scottish Sun
King Charles hails London's ‘spirit of unity' on 20th anniversary of 7/7 terror attacks
Survivors of the attack and rescuers remembered the horror of the bombings 'SELFLESS BRAVERY' King Charles hails London's 'spirit of unity' on 20th anniversary of 7/7 terror attacks KING Charles hailed London's 'spirit of unity' on the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 terror attacks on the city. Four suicide bombers attacked commuters, killing 52 people and injuring 784. Advertisement 4 Four suicide bombers attacked commuters in the 7/7 terror attacks on London, killing 52 people and injuring 784 4 King Charles hailed London's 'spirit of unity' on the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 terror attacks Credit: AFP Charles called the attacks on tube trains and a bus 'senseless acts of evil'. Watch our dramatic film about the horrific 7/7 attack including stories from our own journalists & survivors But he celebrated 'the selfless bravery' of rescue heroes. He called for Brits to use the 20th anniversary to 'reaffirm our commitment' to 'always standing firm against those who would seek to divide us'. Advertisement Survivors of the attack and rescuers remembered the horror of the bombings. Dan Biddle, 46, lost both legs and his left eye in the Tube blast near Edgware Road station. He was just yards from bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan. Dan told The Sun: 'He looked up at me, quickly lowered his eyes, put his right hand through the zip in the top of his bag and exploded himself.' Advertisement Met Superintendent Anna Bearman, then 23 and a PC, spoke of the 'pinch in the stomach moment' when she realised what they thought was a fire at King's Cross was 'something more sinister'. 'We walked about a mile on the tracks and then we carried one person out who had lost a lower limb, as there were no stretchers, and we took them out a mile back to Russell Square,' she said. 'Later on, I saw that my trousers and my legs were absolutely blood-stained, and that was when the shock of the whole day set in.' 7/7 survivor Dan Biddle and his rescuer Adrian interview 4 Met Superintendent Anna Bearman, then 23 and a PC Credit: PA Advertisement
The Sun
06-07-2025
- The Sun
King Charles hails London's ‘spirit of unity' on 20th anniversary of 7/7 terror attacks
KING Charles hailed London's 'spirit of unity' on the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 terror attacks on the city. Four suicide bombers attacked commuters, killing 52 people and injuring 784. 4 4 Charles called the attacks on tube trains and a bus 'senseless acts of evil'. But he celebrated 'the selfless bravery' of rescue heroes. He called for Brits to use the 20th anniversary to 'reaffirm our commitment' to 'always standing firm against those who would seek to divide us'. Survivors of the attack and rescuers remembered the horror of the bombings. Dan Biddle, 46, lost both legs and his left eye in the Tube blast near Edgware Road station. He was just yards from bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan. Dan told The Sun: 'He looked up at me, quickly lowered his eyes, put his right hand through the zip in the top of his bag and exploded himself.' Met Superintendent Anna Bearman, then 23 and a PC, spoke of the 'pinch in the stomach moment' when she realised what they thought was a fire at King's Cross was 'something more sinister'. 'We walked about a mile on the tracks and then we carried one person out who had lost a lower limb, as there were no stretchers, and we took them out a mile back to Russell Square,' she said. 'Later on, I saw that my trousers and my legs were absolutely blood-stained, and that was when the shock of the whole day set in.' 7/7 survivor Dan Biddle and his rescuer Adrian interview 4 4
