Survivor criticises ‘slow’ response to London bombings
A survivor of the 7/7 London bomb attacks has criticised the slow emergency response that saw some victims die “in agony” after the blasts.
Michael Henning was just yards away from Shehzad Tanweer when he detonated a bomb on a Circle line train at Aldgate Tube station, killing seven people.
Mr Henning told the inquest how he became angry when he saw three separate groups of firemen standing around the station after he was evacuated from the train.
He recalled asking the firemen: “Why aren’t you down there? There are people dying.”
But he said none of the firefighters looked at him or replied, apparently out of embarrassment, until one admitted they were worried about a second explosion.
“There were people that may have survived if they had got urgent medical response there and then.” Michael Henning, 7/7 survivor
“There were people that may have survived if they had got urgent medical response there and then,” Mr Henning told the inquest into the deaths of the 52 victims of four separate bombings.
“My view is even if those who were too severely wounded to ever survive, some of them died in agony for 20, 30, 40 minutes, and at least they should have had the dignity of having some morphine or something of that nature.”
“I was quite calm but I could feel the anger rising in me because we had no help apart from the London Underground people at that stage.”
Mr Henning suggested that firefighters, police and paramedics were held back by protocols but he insisted he was not criticising individuals.
“When they were allowed to do their job, they did it absolutely brilliantly.
“There was confusion, they had problems with communication, we know that, but individually they were very brave, very professional.”
‘Deeply lucky’
Mr Henning told the inquest he considers himself a “deeply lucky person” to have survived the blast, after getting on the third carriage instead of the second, where the bomb was detonated.
He described the “horrifying” sights in the minutes after the blast.
“It feels completely real to me now as I speak.
“I can feel the right hand side of my face because I was standing right on to the explosion. I can feel it tense up now, I can feel heat. It’s extremely real.”
“One moment you had the sense of reality as you know it, your every day Tube travel, and the next, it’s all changed.”
Facial injury
Mr Henning told the inquests he thought he had died until he felt blood on the right side of his face, where he was hit by pieces of glass.
“I remember the questions in my head – ‘what is this? what is this?’ – as I’m being twisted and thrown down to the ground and then I realised it was a bomb.
“It’s strange the thoughts that go through your mind, but I think it was one of those completely British understatements, ‘Oh, this isn’t good’.”
He said the passengers in the wrecked train heard nothing over the speaker system, and a member of London Underground staff tried unsuccessfully to pry open the doors to the carriage.
“I don’t think it would be for me to say how long it was before the evacuation happened, but I can say that we did sit there for a long time.”
