How passenger stayed on Tube to comfort the dying

Trained first aider Steven Desborough stayed on the stricken train to help the wounded and dying, offering comfort to Carrie Taylor and Richard Ellery in their final moments.

He told the inquest yesterday that paramedics did not give Ms Taylor, 24, from Billericay, Essex, medical treatment on the spot.

Instead they tried to move her using a ladder as a makeshift stretcher, but she died before they could get her to safety.

Questioned by Ms Taylor's father John, he confirmed that he did not see any of the paramedics using a defibrillator machine or giving anyone cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Mr Desborough was travelling in the sixth carriage of the Circle Line train when Shehzad Tanweer detonated his homemade rucksack bomb in the second carriage.

He recalled that the passengers in his carriage were calm after the explosion and some even told jokes as they waited to find out what was happening.

But when he was being evacuated from the train, he passed the "obliterated" second carriage and saw the "total carnage" inside.

Lying in one of the blown-out doorways was Mr Ellery, 21, from Ipswich, who was "almost in a foetal position".

Mr Desborough told the inquest: "I did my best to calm him down. I couldn't reach to actually see over him and see what injuries he had."

Mr Desborough said he did not stay to help Mr Ellery because he then climbed up a ladder into a different part of the carriage.

On entering the carriage, a doctor called Gerardine Quaghebeur, who was also travelling on the train, asked the first aider to look after Ms Taylor who was bent around a pole and drifting in and out of consciousness.

Dr Quaghebeur told him the young woman had serious internal injuries and it would be "tough to keep her going".

Mr Desborough comforted Ms Taylor by cradling her in his arms with her head on his chest and telling her to "hang in there".

Mr Desborough - who was the last "civilian" survivor to leave the stricken carriage - said it was about 20 minutes before the first member of the emergency services arrived to help.

Asked if he thought extra assistance was needed, he said: "We could have had more people down there."

He described how he helped paramedics painstakingly move Ms Taylor out of the carriage, but she gradually slipped out of consciousness.

He told the hearing: "By this time, if I remember rightly, she had become quite quiet … She had become very peaceful."

Eventually, nothing more could be done and a paramedic told him: "I'm sorry, she's gone."