7/7 paramedics raided cupboard for supplies

A paramedic told today how members of London Ambulance Service acted on intuition, breaking into a medical cabinet for extra supplies when they were called out on the morning of July 7.

Alasdair Hearsum said medics raided a locked store cupboard for additional emergency equipment and drug packs, fearing the "potential for a large number of casualties".

The time of morning and reports of a power surge or explosion led crews to believe a serious disaster was unfolding, the inquests for the 52 victims of the atrocities heard.

"The reports that we received through the phone call indicated that something out of the ordinary had occurred at Edgware Road," Mr Hearsum said.

"I believe we were told by others there was a power surge and they thought it was possibly an explosion but they weren't sure.

"We were told that one of our other crews had arrived on scene which led us to believe that there was something, you know, rather larger than usual occurring at Edgware Road."

Plot ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan killed himself and six others when he detonated his homemade rucksack bomb on a westbound Circle line train at about 8.50am on July 7, 2005.

Members of London Ambulance Service (LAS) were called to the scene by London Fire Brigade at 9.18am.

But sensing they would be confronted by serious numbers of casualties, they stocked up at St John's Wood Ambulance Station before making their way to the bombed train.

Andrew Meyer, who in 2005 was an emergency medical technician, said he and colleagues grabbed extra fluids, pain killers and burns dressings, plus four or five additional drugs packs, taking "as much as we could" before leaving for Edgware Road.

Asked if supplies had started running out on scene, he replied: "No, we didn't run out of anything."

In a rare light moment in proceedings, Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquests, asked Mr Hearsum: "I trust no one was disciplined for breaking into the cupboard?"

"Well not until now," the paramedic replied.

As he completed his evidence, Lady Justice Hallett, an appeal court judge appointed to hear the 7/7 inquests, told him: "I never expected to commend anyone for breaking into a drugs cabinet but if I may say so, you and your colleagues used your initiative to excellent effect both by grabbing the extra equipment and by your going straight down to the train to see if there were any lives you could save."

The co-ordinated attacks on three Tube trains and a bus launched on July 7 2005 by suicide bombers Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Hasib Hussain, 18, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19, were the worst single terrorist atrocity on British soil.

Another paramedic based at St John's Wood said staff realised they were dealing with a major incident following a call from the scene calling all remaining ambulance personal to the station to Edgware Road.

Jesal Joshi told the inquest his team spent less than two minutes between receiving the call, grabbing extra equipment from the store cabinet, and leaving the station.

"I think we all used our common sense and experience and judgment," he added.

But he told the inquest staff lacked sufficient communications and equipment when it came to treating the casualties and struggled to take cumbersome stretchers into the tunnel.

Though they did their best to help those in pain, after some time he said: "We were informed that there were no more resources coming because of other incidents that were occurring in London."

Meanwhile, he said the lighting was "similar to what you might see on aeroplanes during the emergency procedures".

Though paramedics requested better light from London Fire Brigade, this only arrived as they took the remaining victims out of the tunnel on stretchers.

Lady Justice Hallet told him: "Yesterday a witness said that if he were in dire medical trouble he would want a crew from St John's Wood Ambulance Station to go to his aid.

"I'm beginning to understand why."