Survivor: Blast victims left to die in agony

Michael Henning said some victims suffered agonising deaths lasting up to 40 minutes without any pain relief because of emergency service "protocols" on entering dangerous situations.

He recalled his anger at seeing three separate groups of firefighters waiting around after he was evacuated from the train blown up by Shehzad Tanweer at Aldgate Tube station on 7 July, 2005.

The commuter told each of them: "Why aren't you down there? There are people dying."

He said the firefighters were too embarrassed to look at him or reply, apart from a young man who said they were worried about a secondary explosion.

Giving evidence yesterday to the inquests into the deaths of the 52 victims of the attacks, Mr Henning paid tribute to individual rescuers but criticised the rules that stopped them from acting more quickly.

"There were people that may have survived if they had got urgent medical response there and then," he said.

"My view is even if those who were too severely wounded to ever survive, some of them died in agony for 20, 30, 40 minutes, and at least they should have had the dignity of having some morphine or something of that nature."

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Mr Henning, who in 2005 was working as a broker and living in Kensington, west London, added: "In emergency situations there's a reason why there's blue lights and sirens on emergency vehicles, and I know how critical it is.

"I've even spoken to a doctor who said that with immediate medical response perhaps 10 per cent of people would have survived."

Survivors gave the inquests, at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, graphic accounts of the horrific aftermath of the Aldgate blast, which killed seven people and left many more seriously injured.

Mr Henning, who was standing in the carriage behind Tanweer, vividly relived the moment when the suicide bomber detonated his device on the eastbound Circle Line train.

He said: "It feels completely real to me now as I speak. I can feel the right hand side of my face because I was standing right on to the explosion. I can feel it tense up now, I can feel heat. It's extremely real.

"One moment you had the sense of reality as you know it, your everyday Tube travel. And the next, it's all changed."I remember the questions in my head - 'what is this? what is this?' - as I'm being twisted and thrown down to the ground and then I realised it was a bomb.

"It's strange the thoughts that go through your mind, but I think it was one of those completely British understatements, 'oh, this isn't good'."

Mr Henning said he thought he was dead until he felt blood on the right side of his face, where he was hit by flying glass.He then heard screams from seriously injured people in the bombed carriage and saw a shocking sight when he peered in to see if he could help.

He said: "I looked through the twisted windows to see the darkness and I could see people moving slowly in pain… It is a very difficult image to hold."

As he was evacuated from the stricken train, Mr Henning saw off-duty police officer Elizabeth Kenworthy clinging to Martine Wright, who lost both her legs in the attack.

Describing the despair on Ms Kenworthy's face, he said: "I had never ever seen such a forlorn look, such a desperate look." He added: "I was quite calm but I could feel the anger rising in me because we had no help apart from the London Underground people at that stage."

The commuter compared the risk-averse rules of the modern emergency services with the spontaneous courage shown by his grandfather's rescue team in the Blitz.

Mr Henning said firefighters, police and paramedics were held back by their organisations' safety protocols on 7 July, 2005 but stressed that he was not criticising individuals. He told the hearing: "When they were allowed to do their job, they did it absolutely brilliantly.

"There was confusion, they had problems with communication, we know that, but individually they were very brave, very professional."

He added that he learned later that some firefighters needed counselling to deal with the guilt of not helping more quickly.

The inquests also heard moving tributes to the victims of the Aldgate bombing. Bereaved friends and relatives recalled the happy times they spent with them and described the devastation they felt at their losses.

The hearing continues.