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Metro
6 days ago
- Metro
‘Commuters thought they were invincible until 7/7 happened'
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Getting off the mainland train that had taken him from Hertfordshire to Kings Cross station, Sudhesh Dahad bundled into the crowd of morning commuters heading towards the Picadilly Line. It was a hot summer's morning with a sense of excitement in the air, as the previous day London had won the 2012 Olympic bid. Amid the buzz, workers determinedly nestled their way onto busy platforms as they did every day, desperate to get the next train. It was a very crowded platform at Kings Cross, impossible to move. When I got on the train, I couldn't see anything as I was sandwiched between people,' Sudhesh remembers. 'But then, what felt like just seconds after we'd left the station, a bomb went off.' His train had been approaching Russell Square and without realising it, Sudhesh had been just feet away from the bomber, who was in the next carriage. The moment the blast happened, the dad-of-one recognised almost immediately it was a terror attack rather than an accident. 'With the UK's involvement in Iraq the terror threat was so high, and the London Underground is an easy target, I knew it was only a matter of time. But like everyone else, I assumed I was invincible,' Sudhesh tells Metro. 52 people were killed, and nearly 800 more were injured when four suicide bombers struck London's transport network at rush hour on July 7 2005. Three of the blasts occurred on the London Underground around 8.50am near Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations. On Sudhesh's train, 26 were killed – the largest death toll of the four explosions. A fourth device exploded an hour later on a bus close to British Transport Police's HQ. Despite being so close to one of the bombs, Sudhesh walked out of the station with cuts and perforated ear drums, while others were carried out in stretchers. 'At first it just sounded like a popping noise, but I now realise it had actually briefly deafened me,' Sudesh explains. 'I even started to think I had just imagined it, but then everything went dark.' The lights went out, and those able to stand tried desperately to move with the crush to avoid falling to the floor as the emergency brakes were hit. Sudhesh said his survival instinct soon kicked in, and his only thought was getting off the train and out of the station. 'My emotions were completely numbed,' he remembers. 'I didn't even feel any of my injuries, how could I when I saw people being stretchered out near Russell Square? It felt like a close call. It was at the next set of double doors down and had there not been such a density of people, I would have been more injured. It wasn't until a few hours later that the scale of the attacks and the extent of those killed and injured were fully realised. It was something the UK had not seen since World War Two. 20 years on, as tensions rise again in the Middle East, Sudhesh fears we might see a return to the conditions which saw the four suicide bombers inspired to carry out their deadly attacks. 'With the UK involved in the Iraq war and growing conflict in the Middle East, the terror threat in London was high back then. Now we are seeing history repeat itself.' Although not ordering the British military to join today's attacks, Sir Keir Starmer, has said Iran 'can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon' as the UK watches the US launch strikes on Iran. And now in an eerie warning to the West, Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Washington is 'fully responsible for the dangerous consequences and far-reaching implications of its act of aggression'. More Trending 'It's disconcerting, thankfully not to the same extent as it felt in 2005, but it's still very worrying,' says Sudhesh. 'We tend to think the consequences of war happens only thousands of miles away. But it can end up here.' Every year on the anniversary Sudhesh helps organise the memorial, but still finds speaking about the attack uncomfortable. 'The more time that passes, the more pressure there is to have done something with your time, and to speak about your trauma,' he explains. 'I never used to talk about what happened too much. There is a tension between wanting to share with someone to receive some empathy, but by doing that you can also feel your identity reduced to a victim. 'But to sound cliche, you really must live each day as if it's your last. Everyone thinks world conflict happens a thousand of miles from London, but it has come here.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Man arrested after Windrush exhibition vandalised in south London MORE: Paramedics 'triage overheating passengers' on stuck train in more chaos for Eurostar MORE: Off-duty police officer attacked after challenging group barging through tube barriers
The Independent
6 days ago
- The Independent
‘I wasn't sure if I was dead or alive': Survivor recalls horror of 7/7 bombing on packed London Tube
A man caught in the devastating 7/7 bombings has recalled the harrowing aftermath of the attack. Sudhesh Dahad was on his way to work in financial services on Thursday, July 7, 2005, when London's deadliest terrorist incident unfolded. Shortly before 8:50 am, he joined other commuters in the front carriage of a packed Piccadilly Line train heading eastbound from King's Cross. Moments after the train entered the tunnel toward Russell Square, it jolted to a sudden stop. Germaine Lindsay, also known as Abdullah Shaheed Jamal, had detonated a bomb, killing himself and 26 others, and leaving more than 340 injured. Recalling the moment the bomb was detonated, Mr Dahad said: 'My first thought was that I must be in a nightmare I'm not really here. I couldn't really make sense of what had happened other than I was still asleep in my bed and this was a nightmare. 'And then I realised actually no, I'm not in a nightmare this is real. So, I picked myself up the ground and felt my limbs and face. 'I wasn't sure if I was dead or alive.' Speaking in a documentary series about the attacks on BBC Two, Mr Dahad said that after the initial shock, he feared there could be a further attack in the form of a chemical weapon. 'The lights went out the power was completely off,' he said. 'I kind of intuitively felt instantly that this must be a terrorist attack. I didn't know there were 25 people dead in that carriage around me at that time. I just thought well we're alive. 'So, I thought well if it was a terrorist attack and it hasn't killed anyone then there's more to come. maybe a biological or chemical weapon of some sort. 'Smoke started drifting down the carriage I think it must've been the soot dislodged from the wall of the tunnels and I thought maybe this is some kind of toxic gas and I think a lot of people thought the same because people standing near me went to the ground again thinking they might avoid it by staying low.' Mr Dahad joined a number of survivors of the attacks to share their stories of the attacks, in which three tubes and one bus were targetted by suicide bombers, killing 52 people and injuring over 770 others. Explosions were reported on three tubes within one minute on the morning of July 7. The first occurred on an eastbound Circle Line train seconds after it left the platform at Liverpool Street station. Eight people were killed including suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer. A westbound Circle Line train at Edgeware Road was then blown up by Mohammad Sidique Khan, killing seven people including himself. Shortly after the tube with Mr Dahad was targeted. Just under an hour later, the number 30 bus was blown up by Hasib Hussain, 18, at Tavistock Square, killing 14 people including himself, and injuring more than 110.
