Remembering a day of pain

Five years have passed since London’s transport system was hit by four suicide bombers during morning rush hour. Now, the official inquest into the 7/7 attacks is underway. In the Royal Courts of Justice in London, witnesses have been sharing tales of horror and heroism from July 7, 2005, when 52 people died, and approximately 700 were injured.

Gerardine Quaghebeur, a doctor, stayed to try to comfort the dying following an explosion on the London Underground’s Circle Line. Martine Wright, a former marketing manager, told how she’d been sitting six feet away from Shehzad Tanweer when he set off his suicide bomb. She lost 10 pints of blood and both of her legs; Elizabeth Kenworthy, an off-duty police officer, ran back to the blackened scene and used a belt to keep more blood from spilling out of Wright’s body. One tube operator, Timothy Batkin, recounted hearing the screams: “It was a chilling, haunting cry for help, something that still makes my blood run cold.” The inquest is expected to last for up to five months.