7/7 survivor tells of agonising wait for ambulance

A survivor of the July 7 terror attacks had to wait so long for an ambulance that paramedics doubted she would live, an inquest heard today.

Kathleen Lazenbatt suffered a partially collapsed lung and struggled to breathe after suicide bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan detonated his bomb on a Tube train at Edgware Road in London.

But she drew the "short straw" and was left in the wrecked train carriage for up to an hour after another victim was taken to hospital ahead of her, she said.

She told the inquest for the 52 killed of her agonising wait for an ambulance.

"There was a point when they were going to take me out and then they changed their minds," she said.

"There were two Metronet engineers who assisted me quite a lot and one of them said to me 'I'm afraid you've drawn the short straw'."

Another survivor, Elizabeth Owen, was taken to hospital instead, she said.

"There was then a long gap when I believe there were no ambulances available," she went on.

"I was told by people who had been there that it was perhaps an hour we waited for an ambulance to come."

Although she was put on an intravenous drip while she waited in the carriage, she was not given any oxygen during this time, she said.

"I was told afterwards that paramedics didn't think I would survive because I had waited so long," she said.

Ms Lazenbatt also suffered shrapnel injuries to her right ankle, with debris strewn across her feet, in the 2005 atrocity.

A London Ambulance Service (LAS) document suggested the scene was cleared of casualties by 10.36am, the inquest heard.

The inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London also heard of the heroic attempts of passengers in another train to break free and help the victims.

Their train had stopped alongside the bombed Tube.

Matthew Childs, who suffered horrific injuries when his carriage was blown up, told the hearing: "People were trying to break the windows, which I couldn't understand at first.

"But I realised they were trying to get off the train and into our carriage to help people, which I'm just amazed at now."

Ms Lazenbatt gave a similar account of these passengers' efforts.

She said: "(People on the parallel train) seemed to be trying desperately to open the doors of the train.

"I could see them again and again trying to pull the doors apart. They were sometimes able to pull them apart a small amount but no further."

The inquest, which is now in its fifth week and is expected to last five months, was adjourned to tomorrow.