- *Content warning: Contains descriptions of graphic injuries and violence*
A man who lost both of his legs in the 7/7 bombings recounted the moment he locked eyes with the terrorist and the three things his rescuer said.
Wednesday’s instalment of This Morning saw co-hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard sit down with Dan Biddle and Adrian Heili who both survived the 7/7 terrorist attacks in London.
Dan was 26 years old at the time and was on his way to work on July 7, 2005 when three terrorists detonated bombs on the London Underground killing 42 people, including the suicide bombers.
A fourth bomb also exploded on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, central London, killing another 14 including the terrorist.
A four-part series on the events, titled 7/7: The London Bombings, launched on Netflix on July 1.
Dan, who worked in construction at the time, was on the circle line and missed his stop, meaning he was on the carriage with one of the terrorists.
‘My morning of the 7th July, I call it the sliding doors moment because there’s lots of incidents that morning where if I do something different, I’m not on that train and it all culminated with the final mess up was I missed my stop, so I shouldn’t of even been on the train,’ he recalled to Cat and Ben.
Dan was sat near the terrorist in the carriage and recalled locking eyes with him moments before the horrific attack.
‘It was really strange because I was stood up and he was sat next to me… as the train pulled out of Edgware Road station I could feel somebody staring at me,’ Dan said.
However, he admitted he ‘didn’t really think anything of it’ at first.
‘Out of the corner of my eye I saw him lean forward and look along the carriage to the back end of the carriage we was in and then he started to stare at me again,’ Dan explained.
Dan witnessed the moment the terrorist detonated the bomb and described how ‘absolute hell was unleashed’.
He said: ‘By this point it was starting to get a little bit uncomfortable so I looked at him, locked eyes with him, I was just about to say ‘What you’re looking at mate? What’s your problem?’ and I just saw him reach into the bag and that’s when absolute hell was unleashed.’
The moment the bomb was set off, there was a ‘brilliant white flash’ of light and heat unleashed into the carriage.
Dan was blown through the carriage doors and into the tunnel by the pressure of the bomb.
He didn’t realise what had happened at first and assumed the carnage was caused by a train collision or an electrical explosion.
‘I didn’t realise how seriously injured I was in that second, it was only when I moved my arms and my arms and hands were on fire that I realised actually this is a bit more than I first realised,’ Dan recalled.
‘That’s when 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.’
Dan lost both of his legs in the incident, and recalled how his left leg was found 15 feet behind him in the tunnel.
He also suffered a lacerated liver, burst spleen, ruptured colon, ruptured bowel, punctured kidney, two punctured lungs and lost his left eye, amongst other injuries.
Adrian had been on a different carriage and suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken ribs.
He recalled hearing ‘almighty screams’ from people in the tunnel and climbed over tracks to reach Dan who he had been able to speak to.
Adrian had worked as a medic in the military previously and used his experience to help Dan and other injured people.
‘When I found Danny I didn’t actually see the full extent of his injuries I saw his head was cut open, he had facial injuries and his hands were charred,’ he said.
It wasn’t until Adrian moved the tube door off Dan that he realised how badly injured he was.
Dan credited Adrian for saving his life and said: ‘He ran headlong into what people were trying to run away from.
‘Basically Adrian, when he found me, he said three things to me which I’m never going to forget.
‘The first thing he said to me was… I’ve been in this situation before and never lost anyone, which was a little bit unsettling at first I’ve got to admit.
‘He then asked me if I had anything he didn’t want to be catching because obviously massive open wounds and then he said to me, ‘Brace yourself Dan this is really going to hurt’. And I thought, I’ve been set on fire, I’ve got all these injuries what can you possibly do to me that could hurt anymore?
‘One thing Adrian isn’t is a liar, because he basically had to push his hand into what was left of my left leg, find my femoral artery and pinch it shut to stop me from bleeding to death.’
Cat and Ben were speechless at the recount and Ben commented, ‘It’s extraordinary hearing you say that and you were doing it in a train tunnel, a tube tunnel, surrounded by the devastation’.
‘The experience I had in the past gave me that understanding and confidence more than anything to say that I’m going to do my best for Dan,’ Adrian said.
Dan described how everything he witnessed, including inside the tube and outside of the station has culminated into a lot of painful memories.
‘Adrian and myself, we don’t have one trauma, we have 101 different traumas and for both of us it’s like having a horror movie playing in your head on repeat and you can’t find a button to turn it off, so you have to live with it,’ Dan explained.
Despite the horrors both men witnessed, they have formed a strong friendship with one another and Dan credited Adrian for saving his life.
‘Everything I’ve done with my life since 8.52 on the 7th July is because of this man,’ he said.
‘We didn’t know each other, we’d never met before that day and one of the things I always come back to when I talk about 7/7 is in a space of minutes I came face to face with the very worst of humanity and the person that did this, and the very best of it in Adrian.’
This Morning airs weekdays on ITV1 from 10am and is available to stream on ITVX.
