7/7 London bombings police officer reveals the tragic phrases he stated when he was left alone with the our bodies of victims in blown-up Tube carriage

A retired Counter Terrorism Officer has revealed how he spoke to the bodies of victims of the London 7/7 terrorist attacks, after being left ‘completely alone’ with them in a Tube carriage hours after a teen suicide bomber had detonated his rucksack bomb. 

Clive Holland was among a police team who headed down to assess the devastation caused when the first carriage of Piccadilly Line train 311 was blown up by suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay close to Russell Square station. 

Lindsay’s detonation at 8.49am on July 7, 2005, was one of three bombs that killed 42 people on the London Underground, with 14 more lives lost on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square less than an hour later. 784 people were also injured in the atrocities.

All four of the bombers, who’d plotted their attack from their homes in West Yorkshire, Hasib Hussain, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Lindsay and Mohammad Sidique Khan, were killed. 

It was the deadliest attack in London since World War II, the worst terrorist attack since the 1988 Lockerbie bombing and involved the first suicide bombings ever on English soil.

A new BBC series, 7/7 The London Bombings, marks the 20th year since the attacks, with many of the first responders who attended the scenes of slaughter recounting through tears how the day unfolded.

Viewers have called the series, of which two episodes have aired on BBC Two so far, ‘gripping’ and ‘heartbreaking’.

The latest installment to air on BBC2 saw Holland, who was in the Army for 22 years before serving in the police force, discussing the moment he found himself unexpectedly alone with the bodies of those killed as his team went to fetch more lighting. 

In highly emotional footage, Holland pauses to gather his emotions before telling the programme how he felt compelled to speak to the dead. 

He said: ‘There was a lot of bodies inside, just blown to pieces. The light on the train was still working but we needed more lights so they all went back and left me in there, on my own.’

Through tears he reveals what he said: ‘So, I was just chatting to them, telling them, “We’re here now. Everything is going to be OK.”‘

‘I’m really sorry what has happened but we’re going to get you back to your loved ones as quickly as we can, and we’ll treat you with as much dignity as possible.’ 

Former Church of England priest Julie Nicholson, 71, who gave up the ministry after her daughter Jenny lost her life in the attacks, recalls the kindness of strangers in the series. 

Music publisher Jenny, 24, was on a tube train at Edgware Road station, having been diverted from her normal route because of problems on the Piccadilly Line, when suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan blew himself up – and everyone around him. 

Nicholson recounts the trauma of discovering her daughter was missing and then one of the deadly attacks victims, and how a London cabbie refused to let her get on a busy train to return to her sister’s home in Reading – driving her the whole way and not charging her for the fare.

After asking to see a photo of Jenny, Julie reveals the cab driver told her: ‘This is my gift. But I’d just like you to do something for me. Remember that there are more good people in the world than bad.’ 

Those tuning into the latest episode have praised the bravery of the deadly attacks first responders online. 

On X, one person wrote: ‘7/7 The London Bombings was a hard watch. My God I have nothing but admiration for the officers that took part in this 4 part documentary. For all the flaws in policing this country is lucky to have officers like those.’ 

Another added: ‘If you haven’t already, watch 7/7 The London Bombings. Heartbreaking hearing some of the stories, and how the police operation was run!! 

Across the series, the film-makers interview the key players in the manhunt for the bombers, including the then Prime Minister Tony Blair, MI5 Director General Eliza Manningham-Buller, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and the head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch Peter Clarke, as well as survivors and witnesses.

It chronicles the chaos in the aftermath of the attack and the twists and turns in the hunt to recover the victims’ bodies, identify the terrorists and find their bomb factory.

It reveals that the police initially failed to realise the terrorists were suicide bombers and operated on the basis they were still at large and planning further attacks in Britain.

The series also discloses that it was the brother of one of the men who tipped off police about the terrorists’ bomb factory, plus how the police found CCTV footage of the four killers in a car park in Luton and at King’s Cross station as they embarked on their murder spree.

As Sir Ian Blair tells the programme: ‘It was like a door had been opened into a new kind of terrorism. We’d been involved with the IRA and the loyalists for a very long time, but never did they do anything the size of this. 

‘This was a steep change. And once that door has been opened, we would be aware that it can never be shut again.’

How the deadliest attack on London since World War II unfolded:

Thursday, July 7, 2005

London was jubilant on the morning of July 7, 2005. Just 24 hours earlier, the International Olympic Committee had announced that the capital would host the 2012 Olympic Games and Brits celebrated late into the night. But, within hours of daybreak, the smiles had been wiped off the nation’s faces.

The first bomb exploded on Circle Line train number 204 as it travelled eastbound between Liverpool Street and Aldgate, killing eight, including bomber Shehzad Tanweer, 22, who lived with his parents in Leeds and worked in a fish and chip shop.

British Transport Police officer Tony Silvestro, who was based at Aldgate tube station, heard a ‘massive bang explosion’ and ran to the scene, where he saw a surge of smoke, like a ‘volcano’, and scores of dishevelled people, covered in dust, with their hair sticking up and in such shock that the whites of their eyes stood out.

After discovering one passenger, Thelma Stober, on the track, he did a clean sweep of the train to make sure everyone was out.

‘I then decided just to go back to Thelma,’ he says. ‘I just kept talking to her, trying to keep her alive.’

‘He kept asking me the same questions over and over again,’ adds Stober, 49, a lawyer for the London Development Agency, who had to have the lower part of her left foot amputated. ‘I was in and out of consciousness, and at one point I say: ‘Why do you keep asking me the same questions over and over again?’ ‘

The last person rescued from the train was Martine Wright, now 52, an international marketing manager at media website CNET, who was on the Circle line after she overslept. The most seriously injured 7/7 bomb victim, Wright lost both legs and 80 per cent of her blood and had such profound injuries that her mother could only identify her by her eyebrows.

‘I knew I was the last person to get out of that Tube because the firemen had to cut me out,’ recalls Wright, who went on to represent Britain in wheelchair volleyball at the Paralympics.

‘I’ve met the fireman since and he showed me his hand and there’s a little scar. He went: ‘You did that. You were in so much pain when we were cutting you out.’ ‘

Meanwhile, eight stops west along the Circle line, a second bomb had exploded on train number 216, travelling between Edgware Road and Paddington, killing seven people, including suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, a primary school learning mentor, who lived in Leeds with his wife and child.

Father-of-four Bill Mann was sitting opposite the bomber. ‘There were burning embers flying past my eyes, fragments of glass from the shattered windows flying through the air,’ he recalls. ‘There was a brief moment of silence. And then the screaming started.

‘I can remember distinctly two different types of screams. There were the screams of people who were hysterical because they didn’t know what was going on and there were the real guttural screams of people who were seriously injured and dying.’

Within seconds, a third bomb was detonated on Piccadilly line train 311 travelling south from King’s Cross to Russell Square, killing 27 people, including bomber Germaine Lindsay, 19, who lived in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, with his pregnant wife and son.

Finally, at 9.47am, a fourth bomb exploded on the top deck of a number 30 double-decker bus in Tavistock Square, killing 14 people, including bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, who lived with his brother and sister-in-law in Leeds.

Met Police officer Glen Hesketh, a crime scene dog-handler, was one of the first to arrive. He discovered fellow officers were waiting for the arrival of an ammunition technical officer as they feared there was another bomb on the bus.

His instant reaction was to put the dog to work. ‘I ran towards the bus, pulled the door open, went in and looked at this box.

‘It was marked as a microwave oven, so I let the dog examine it and he was showing no interest, so I split it open, and it was a microwave. I came out of the bus and shouted: ‘It’s clear.’ ‘

Meanwhile, John Prescott, then Deputy Prime Minister, was chairing a Cabinet meeting in Downing Street as Tony Blair was hosting the G8 Summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, when a note was passed to Home Secretary Charles Clarke about the incident.

He immediately left the room and rang the PM. Over at New Scotland Yard, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair switched on the television and saw the wreckage of the bus. ‘I knew at that moment London was under attack,’ he says, ‘and this was going to be the greatest challenge imaginable.’

Blair called a midday press conference to address the nation. ‘It’s reasonably clear that there have been a series of terrorist attacks in London,’ he said. ‘There are obviously casualties, both people who have died and people seriously injured. Our thoughts and prayers are, of course, with the victims and their families.’

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary called a Cobra meeting to discuss how to respond to the national emergency. Attended by MI5 Director General Eliza Manningham-Buller and Met Police assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, the atmosphere soon turned frosty.

‘The chair was Charles Clarke, Home Secretary,’ says Hayman, ‘and he was demanding to know how many scenes there were. He wanted answers. I was pretty clear I had four crime scenes, but one of the secretaries of state, I think, was being briefed from behind.

‘Her team was adamant there were eight. If we’d carried on with that and accepted that point, the implication would be that we were sending resources to four scenes that weren’t crime scenes, and that can’t happen.’

Immediately after the rescue operation, police began conducting a forensic examination of the crime scenes to look for bomb parts, remote controls and timing mechanisms. They also compiled a list of witnesses to interview, and pulled in CCTV footage from inside the M25, a vast undertaking.

‘We wanted to know, had these attacks been committed by suicide bombers or were there people who had launched the attacks and were ready to come back and attack again,’ explains Peter Clarke, then head of the Anti-Terrorist Branch.

It was at around 8.30pm on the evening of July 7, that police got their first break. Met Police anti-terror investigator Ken McAulay recovered a wallet from the floor of the carriage at Aldgate, which contained HSBC and Halifax cards in the name of Mr S Khan and Mr Sidique Khan.

Officers also discovered a snooker club membership card in the name of Mr S Tanweer. Both bombers had been suspects on the periphery of a previous terrorist investigation – Operation Crevice – into a group of British Al-Qaeda terrorists. The race was on to track them down. Over the next week the team took 500 witness statements and analysed more than 5,000 CCTV tapes.

Friday, July 8, 2005

London awoke with police unaware whether the terrorists were suicide bombers or still at large. ‘The counter-terrorist part of MI5 was certainly concerned that there might be another attack imminent,’ reveals Eliza Manningham-Buller. Nevertheless, the Prime Minister decided to re-open the transport network.

‘I had to take the decision that we wouldn’t shut down the Underground the next day,’ Blair tells the programme. ‘We would let it run. In the end, all the decisions stopped with the Prime Minister but you’re there thinking: ‘Well, if there is a bomb that goes off on the underground, I’ve taken the decision to keep it open.’ ‘

By now Scotland Yard had instigated its largest investigation in history. ‘The logistics of this investigation dwarfed anything we had [done] before,’ says Hayman. ‘New Scotland Yard had two floors of incident rooms. There were three lines of inquiry: we had to speak to witnesses; obviously forensics; and no investigation is complete without a CCTV grab.’

The first step was to recover the bodies. Then police had a breakthrough: anti-terror investigator Steve Keogh, who was at Edgware Road, discovered another credit card belonging to Khan. It was confirmation they had the right man.

‘We had seven fatal casualties at Edgware Road but there was one massively worse than the others,’ he explains. ‘There was a huge hole where the explosion took place. What remained was wrapped around the chassis of the train.

‘I was given a garden hoe and had to flick the remains from the chassis onto the floor, scoop that up and put it into a plastic bag. As it was removed from the train, we found a credit card.’

Saturday, July 9, 2005

By the following morning, police had the Leeds addresses of Khan and Tanweer and relayed the information to John Parkinson, counter-terrorism senior investigating officer for the North of England, who immediately put their homes under surveillance.

He soon discovered another piece in the jigsaw – that Hasib Hussain, who had been reported missing by his mother, lived within a mile of the others. ‘I just don’t believe in coincidences,’ he says.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

West Yorkshire Police family liaison officer Cate Booth questioned Hussain’s family, backed up by an armed response vehicle, parked nearby. It was her gut instinct that led to the discovery of the bomb factory.

In an inspired piece of detective work, she furtively handed over her mobile number to Hussain’s brother Imran, who was saying little and avoiding her gaze.

That evening, her instinct was rewarded when he called her. ‘He said he’d been in Hasib’s room and found a phone, which he didn’t know Hasib had. There was only one number on this phone, and he managed to ring it.

‘Imran asked the man who answered how he knew Hasib and he said Hasib had rented a property from him at 18, Alexandra Grove [Leeds]. All Imran said to me was: ‘You’d better get round there quick,” recalls Booth.

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Hundreds of police officers raided 24 different houses and cars linked to the three men. After discovering possible explosives in Alexandra Grove, they evacuated 1,500 residents.

‘I sat in the command-and-control room overseeing the activities,’ says Parkinson. ‘At Alexandra Grove, we had explosives officers who chose not to go through the front door but through a window.

‘What was being relayed to me was the fact it was such a mess inside. There’d been no attempt to clear up afterwards. There’d been no attempt to disguise how they’d made the devices or what the devices were made of.’

Meanwhile, there was a Eureka moment at New Scotland Yard. Metropolitan CCTV coordinator DC Marcelle Stroud had discovered footage of the bombers at King’s Cross station.

‘It was four individuals and they’ve all got the same rucksacks. We had identity documents found at the scene. The ID at the scene matched the description on the CCTV. That’s when we realised, we had a break. We’re able to identify Tanveer, Hussain and Mohammad Sidique Khan.’

However, the team still had to identify the fourth man. They tracked the CCTV backwards and realised the group had taken the train from Luton to King’s Cross. After seizing the footage of Luton station, they discovered that Khan, Tanweer and Hussain had arrived in a blue Nissan Micra, packed with homemade hand grenades. It took 14 hours for police to make the vehicle safe.

The fourth man had arrived at the car park earlier in the day in a Fiat Brava, which had by now been ticketed and towed to a car pound. When it was searched, police found a handgun and ammunition.

‘We checked the registration of that vehicle,’ adds Stroud, ‘and we managed to get a driving licence photo of the registered keeper. That’s when we were able to identify Germaine Lindsay as the fourth person. The feeling of relief was massive.’

The immediate threat was over, the bombers dead. But, as the world now knows, it was just 14 days before another group of terrorists sought to bring chaos to London on July 21, 2005.

7/7: The London Bombings is available on BBC iPlayer. The remaining two episodes will air at 9pm on the 12th and 13th January