7/7 rescue teams had four-letter row over treatment of victims

Published on Friday 29 October 2010 17:17

Paramedics who treated survivors of the 7/7 bombings complained that some people died because they lacked equipment to move them, an inquest has been told.

Emergency medics also reported being hampered by problems with their radios, a shortage of pain relief, confusion about their roles and delays in deploying them to scenes of the four blasts.

Firefighters clashed angrily with the first paramedic to arrive at Aldgate Underground station, where seven people were killed, after he refused to take seriously injured victims to hospital.

Anthony Cumner said he was "incident officer" and had to stay at the scene and assess how many more ambulances were needed.

The fire crews responded with "hostility and panic", with one telling Mr Cumner, "Give me the f***ing keys and I will drive the f***ing ambulance", the inquest for the 52 people who died in the attacks on London on 7 July, 2005, heard.

A long list of complaints by paramedics involved in the emergency response was drawn up at a debriefing session at Millwall Football Club in south London at the end of the day, the hearing was told.

Minutes from the meeting show these included "communications very difficult to get through", "not enough pain relief in packs" and "five different people telling you five different things".

Paramedics based in Camden, north London, complained that they were left to watch the events of July 7 unfold on television before being sent to help survivors.

The memo records that they said: "We felt we were badly deployed - we waited a long time before being deployed."

Suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his device on an eastbound Circle Line Tube train at Aldgate at about 8:50am.

Mr Cumner, who in 2005 had 22 years' experience as a paramedic with London Ambulance Service, and his colleague, Andrea Ray, arrived about 20 minutes later.

Recalling the scene, he told the inquest: "As I left the vehicle, I could see a number of people outside the station who indeed did look like they were covered in soot. Some of these people were standing, some were sitting and some were lying down."

Fire crews told him he needed to take wounded survivors - including Emma Brown, who had severe shrapnel wounds to her stomach - to hospital.

Mr Cumner wrote in debrief notes after the incident: "Firefighters insisting that we take a number of casualties at the station entrance.I declined, explaining that we were the first ambulance on and could not convey any patients but had to evaluate the situation, and I had to take on the role of incident officer until relieved.

"This was met by some hostility and panic from the firefighters, with comments such as 'Give me the f***ing keys and I will drive the f***ing ambulance'."

Mr Cumner added in brackets the comment, "not helpful".

He told the hearing that the clash with fire crews delayed him by only about 30 seconds.

Sean Clarke, the first senior firefighter to arrive at Aldgate, said there was a misunderstanding about the role of the first paramedics on the scene.

He said: "We are always taught about the golden hour, how to get people out of a situation and get them care as quickly as possible within the first hour.

"And, naively perhaps, we think that the ambulance service are there to do that, to ferry them off and get them away from the situation."