J7 London Bombings Dossier
Index 19 - King's Cross to Russell Square
Official version of events
At 0850 a bomb was detonated, by Lindsay Germaine, in the first carriage of a Picadilly line train number 311 travelling south from Kings Cross station to Russell Square. It killed himself and 26 other people. More than 340 were injured.
Query
Were the numbers of dead and injured exaggerated so that casualties from other undisclosed incidents could be allocated to this one?
Exhibits (K-R11 - K-R20)
There are statements from passengers in all of the five rear carriages.(See the previous folder for statements from the first carriage)
Fiona Trueman (K-R11) and Steven (K-R12a-c) were in the second carriage ie the one next to the explosion. Steven was injured by flying glass as were other passengers. However there appears to have been no deaths or traumatic injuries in there.
Mandy Yu (K-R13) Harald Schoenbradt (K-R17) and Alexander Chadwick (K-R18) all describe a comparatively minor explosion.
(K-R19a-b) and (K-R20a-b) both highlight contradictory information given out by TFL regarding the identification number of the train involved.
Related Information
Kings Cross to Russell Square (first carriage)
Kings Cross to Russell Square (official version)
Summary
As stated in the previous (first carriage) file it appears highly likely that the number of casualties were exaggerated by the authorities. There are also indications that another train could have been involved and that some of the witnesses quoted may have been travelling on this.
There is no evidence of fatalities other than in the first carriage, which was “evacuated” to Russell Square; therefore, what is the explanation for the bodies seen at Kings Cross?
References
K-R11
Fiona Trueman, 26, was travelling on the Piccadilly Line between King's Cross and Russell Square when the most devastating of the bombs went off in the carriage next to hers, killing at least 21 people.
She was in the second carriage of the train, standing next to the window that separated it from the first, and was showered with glass
Source: St Albans Observer
K-R12a/b/c
p224 Steven – Survivor Testimony
I got on the first door of the second carriage, with my back against the internal door to the first carriage
p 225 I could see a man standing against the left rear of carriage one ..
The walls of the tunnel were only a hands length from the train, there was no way to get out. I looked back and 5 injured people got out of the carriage behind (the first one)
p. 226 I got out the 3rd side doors of the 3rd carriage onto the track and down a side tunnel as we had stopped at a “Y” junction
Source: 7 July Review Committee [PDF]
K-R13
I'm very surprised that there were so many deaths claimed at the King's Cross explosion. I was standing at the front of the second carriage and apart from a couple of voices that were screaming and praying, there were no cries for help that indicated serious injury or even death. Especially as many as 21 or more as reported. People were in a state of shock but remained calm. Is there any information on how they died or how the explosion could have killed them?
Mandy Yu, LondonSource: BBC News
K-R14
p 21 Jane (King's Cross/Russell Square): On 7 July, I boarded the train at Arsenal to go to Russell Square. As it turned out, I was at the front of the third carriage of the Piccadilly Line train on which there was a bomb.
p. 22 Everyone looked after each other, held each other’s hands, and two normal commuters stood and helped everyone jump down from the Tube out of the door.
Source: 7 July Review Committee [PDF]
K-R15
p.93 Amy: I was in the fourth carriage of the King’s Cross Tube.
I had to walk through my carriage and then get into the third carriage, and go down via the first set of doors onto the track.
Then we had to walk all the way to King’s Cross. We still didn’t know it was a bomb.
Source: 7 July Review Committee [PDF]
K-R16
p. 29 I too was on the Piccadilly Line train, and I got on at Manor House, on the back carriage. It was absolutely packed
Once we had broken the glass, we realised that the tunnel was about 10cm away, and it had been a pretty futile exercise, because there was no way we could get out anyway.
Source: 7 July Review Committee [PDF]
K-R17
I was on the Piccadilly Line-the first after there was a fire alarm at Caledonian Road. Just after Kings X there was a "bang" coming from the front carriage-the light went out and emergency lighting came on-smoke came apparently from outside-There were no announcement-some people started panicking after a while and tried to smash the doors-but only to injure themselves- after about 30min 2 policemen opened the back door and let people out. I wonder why it took so long-the smoke settled down after a while and I assume it was only dust spelled around by the sudden tube break-we were only maybe 100m away from the platform. But when you're inside you don't realise that. I guess no one was seriously injured on that train-but I haven't seen what happened to the people at the front carriage- They should have passed information that there is no fire etc. the atmosphere in a packed tube carriage is already frightening enough.
Harald Schoenbrodt, LondonSource: BBC News
K-R18
At ten to nine, southbound on the Piccadilly line between King's Cross and Russell Square, my train was derailed. Obviously a derailment is rather scary but we hadn't heard anything about terrorism or anything like that at the time. There was a flash and a bang (not a big one, I doubt the train I was on was the one that took the direct hit of a bomb) and the train stopped surprisingly quickly.
Smoke was everywhere so we were a little concerned about fire but it soon became clear that there was none so we just stayed put and waited for someone to tell us what to do! No one in my carriage panicked which is quite surprising as the smoke was really thick and nasty, everyone was breathing through shirts and tissues. We were stuck on the train for about 25 minutes before an official came and told us what was going on, and we evacuated quite calmly. I don't know what happened up at the front of the train though.
Alexander Chadwick, Enfield, London, UKSource: BBC News
K-R19a/b
Not wishing to denigrate any of the actions of police on the day, not ONE WORD has been said about the driver of Train 311, Tom ****. I joined Tom's train at Kings Cross, travelling in the cab with him on my way to work as a fellow driver, based at Acton Town. I took the first couple of batches of walking wounded to Russell Square and was probably the first member of staff to meet any colleague at the station.
Tom stayed behind in the first car, doing what we as drivers are paid to do, looking after his train and his passengers on it. He helped some by applying tourniques and reassurring others. He saw things that even trained police officers found themselves unable to cope with, but most importantly had to face it on his own before help arrived probably 40 minutes later, a scene of utter devastation in almost total darkness.
He has never been mentioned or praised, he has remained dignified and quiet, and has never returned to drive a train.
Recently he applied for some compensation through his union. The response from the Met Police was "We have no knowledge of this person having been involved in this incident and therefore will not be processing his claim further."
Rather odd because Tom and I were interviewed by police for around three hours after the incident. The press coverage of the other 'heroes' has left him feeling completely empty and devalued. Pity when the the reaction of Police and certain members of station staff are lauded he has been completely forgotten.
Ray Wright
Train Operator
Acton Town Depot
K-R20
Weaselbitch (alternate cached copy) was in the 5th carriage of train 331:
We didn't know about the fork in tunnel up ahead. I think this would have been where the people who'd smashed their window and climbed out came from.
At least part of the 5th carriage was in narrow tunnel. This puts the rear of train 331 much closer to the KXSP platform than the 100m often stated. If the whole of the 6th and half of the 5th carriage were in narrow tunnel, then the rear of train 331 would have been only about 45m from the platform.
Joe Orr places the front of train 311 about 440m from King's Cross.
...start running towards Russell Square down the left hand side of the track to try to get help. I look at the 100metre measurements along the track to see how far it is to Russell Square - about 380 metres.
Source: The Numeral
