Father in emotional 7/7 exchange

The inquest is hearing details of the bombing at Aldgate Tube station

The father of a victim of the 7 July bomb attacks has questioned one of the last people to see her alive in an emotional exchange at the inquest.

John Taylor told survivor Melvin Finn that the young woman he had helped following the Aldgate bomb was “probably my daughter, Carrie”.

Mr Finn told the court that her eyes were closed but she “appeared to be alive”.

The inquests into the 52 deaths are expected to take up to five months.

Mr Finn told the inquest how he held Miss Taylor’s head and torso as a woman doctor tended to her injuries.

Asked by Mr Taylor whether his daughter had said anything or murmured, Mr Finn replied: “No, absolutely nothing, nothing at all”.

Mr Finn, who suffered injuries to his arm and hand, said he left the carriage as emergency workers began to arrive.

When asked whether Mr Taylor’s daughter was still with a doctor when he left her, Mr Finn replied: “I think so, yes”.

Mr Finn, who was in the second carriage of the Circle line train, where Shehzad Tanweer detonated his bomb, said Miss Taylor was not moving but bubbles of blood on her nose “suggested that there was breathing”.

‘Complete devastation’

Another survivor of the attacks has described awaking to a scene like a “video nasty” after being knocked out for 30 minutes.

Hilary Collyer told the inquests she asked a fellow passenger what had happened and was told: “I think there’s been a bomb, love.”

She said she waited about an hour to be taken to hospital after evacuation, despite being classed “priority two”.

Mrs Collyer was travelling to work at Westminster in the same carriage as suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer when his device exploded killing seven people.

Lee Baisden

Age: 34

Mr Baisden was standing right next to the bomber Shehzad Tanweer. The accountant worked for the London Fire & Emergency Planning Authority and had recently set up home with his boyfriend, but also spent a lot of time looking after his widowed mother. He travelled to Liverpool Street from Romford, Essex, and got on the Circle line through Aldgate on his way to work in Westminster.

Richard Gray

Age: 41

Mr Gray was a tax accountant who commuted to London from Ipswich. He was married with two children. One friend described him as “a gentleman of modest disposition, charm, courtesy and subtle humour and above all he was a family man”. Mr Gray was standing opposite Shehzad Tanweer.

Anne Moffat

Age: 48

Anne Moffat was head of marketing and communications for Girlguiding UK. She was standing in the middle of the carriage between both sets of doors, close to the bomber. She commuted from Harlow, Essex, to her office in Victoria.A colleague Muriel Dunn said: “Her loss is a terrible tragedy and she will be greatly missed.”

Benedetta Ciaccia

Age: 30

The Italian-born business analyst was preparing for her wedding when she was killed at Aldgate. She was standing in the carriageway opposite the bomber and the evidence indicates she died instantly. Her fiancé, Fiaz Bhatti, spent a week on London’s streets with a homemade missing person poster, hoping she may have survived.

Richard Ellery

Age: 21

Mr Ellery had recently started working for Jessops Cameras in Ipswich and was in London for a training course. First aiders tried unsuccessfully to save him at the scene. His father, brother and flatmate searched for him in London, until his death was confirmed. The family said he had been “a fun loving boy, full of enthusiasm for life”.

Fiona Stevenson

Age: 29

Miss Stevenson was a lawyer on her way to Hammersmith Magistrates Court. Her firm described her as “hard-working, conscientious and supremely able”, driven by her determination to represent the weak. She grew up in the Chelmsford area and had friends around the world. Her family said she was passionate about human rights and wanted to work for the United Nations.

Carrie Taylor

Age: 24

Miss Taylor was on her way to work at the RSA. She commuted from Billericay, Essex, with her mother. June Taylor said they would always kiss goodbye at Liverpool Street. Then Miss Taylor would turn and wave until out of view. “I’m so very glad that the last picture I have of her is smiling and waving at me,” Mrs Taylor said.

She said the moment of the explosion was as if someone had “flicked the light switch” and she lost consciousness.

“The way I have described coming to was I felt I had fallen asleep on the sofa and someone had put a video nasty on the telly.

“But I remember coming to with this scene around me just completely disorientated, just wondering what had happened.”

Mrs Collyer, who in 2005 worked for the Home Office, said she was faced with “complete devastation”.

She told the inquests: “I became aware of this lady next to me and I remember asking her, ‘What’s happened?’

“I remember she put her hand on my knee and said: ‘I think there’s been a bomb, love.’ I thought, ‘Oh OK’. I suppose that was when I thought, ‘Don’t panic’.”

Mrs Collyer had lost her shoes and her knees were covered in debris from the explosion so she could not move.

She tried to concentrate on part of the top of the train, telling herself: “Don’t take any of this in, this is horrible.”

It was while she was being evacuated along the track to Aldgate station that she realised she was “half naked” because her clothes had been torn to shreds by the blast.

The inquest has also heard that police shut down the O2 mobile phone network to the public around Aldgate Tube station after the attacks to prevent overloading.

A senior officer from City of London Police invoked powers to restrict use of the network to members of the emergency services with special handsets.

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