00:00The 20th anniversary of the London bombings with us here in the studio now is Dan Biddle
00:07and Dan was one of the victims of the attack and he was just you know within touching distance
00:13from the leading suicide bomber and when that bomb went off it killed six people.
00:19Yeah and Dan appeared in the new Netflix documentary Attack on London
00:23hunting the 7-7 bombers and we've got a clip of that for you right now.
00:27I could feel somebody staring at me it was just this really unnerving feeling
00:33it was one of those stairs where he didn't blink he was totally fixated on what was in front of him
00:41almost like he was staring through me it was that intense
00:45and then I was just about to go like is there a problem mate what you what you're looking at
00:54just went to open my mouth to say and I just see his hand go and then
01:00No that was 20 years ago you were 26 at the time Dan
01:06um what's it like seeing that and hearing yourself recounted
01:12it's still really surreal it's still a kind of strange thought to
01:16to realise I was in right in the middle of what happened that day
01:19um and even though it's 20 years it still feels like yesterday
01:22yeah
01:23the pain and and the emotional torment that that goes with that is just as fresh now as when it just
01:28happened
01:28and when you think back to that morning because you've written a book about about that day
01:34and your experience since you actually were considering not going into work that day
01:39yeah my whole story of 770 is what I kind of term as sliding door moments
01:44there's so many opportunities that were presented to me to do something different
01:47um or to stick to my normal routine and not step outside of that
01:51and yeah there's there's countless times where if I would have made a different decision
01:56then I wouldn't have been on that train at that time
01:58if I'd have got up on time if I'd have missed my stop
02:00there's there's so many things I can think back on and think
02:03if only I've done this if only I've done that
02:04but it serves no purpose now because what's happened has happened
02:08you were you were horrendously injured but people died on that bus that day
02:13yeah I mean from the area of the train that I was on when the bomb went off
02:17um I'm the only one that survived they killed everybody around me
02:20uh and that's incredibly tough to live with
02:22to know that you survived something that that everybody around you didn't
02:26um and I was pretty much laying in and amongst dead bodies and body parts for
02:30about an hour and 40 minutes before I was taken out the tunnel
02:32and what do you remember about the murderer uh the suicide bomber
02:37um obviously you were about to say to have you got a problem what are you looking at me for
02:41and he put his hand on this bomber and it exploded
02:46that was him he was killed he was out of the picture uh with that
02:50but what what do you remember about seeing him the man who killed
02:54was setting out to murder people that day
02:56I think the most terrifying thing about it is just how calm he was
03:00there wasn't there wasn't a hesitation when he reached for the bag
03:03when he when he was looking at me as if it was if he was looking through me
03:06and it was all very calculated because he leant forward and looked along the carriage
03:10and when I was interviewed by the anti-terrorist squad um a few months later
03:14they basically said he was looking to see where the biggest group of people were in the train
03:19so it was a very evil calculated act but there was no fear there was no hesitation
03:25and the most scariest thing of all was he just looked like everybody else
03:29there wasn't anything about him that I would look at
03:32say he looks like a terrorist
03:34yeah there was no screaming or shouting or anything like that
03:37it was just a very calm one action and and he was out of the picture
03:41and I've had to live the rest of my life with the consequences of what he did
03:44yeah the power from the blast and you described this in the Netflix documentary that I was actually
03:49watching last night you were thrown onto the tracks weren't you and you were saved
03:54tell us about that
03:55yeah because I was stood up I was stood next to the bomber
03:58when the bomb went off it blew me through the train door so I basically hit the tunnel wall
04:02and then bounced back into the crawl space between the tunnel wall and the track
04:05and I kind of landed at an angle
04:07um I thought I was going to die I knew I was I knew I was seriously injured um and I just started
04:13screaming for help and I just heard this very deep South African accent shout back at me
04:17he shouted what's your name and I didn't know if he was talking to me or somebody else but I
04:21thought I'm just going to answer it and hope for the best so I shouted it's Dan
04:24he said my name's Adrian keep talking and I'll I'll find you
04:27so where I was kind of tunnel wall side of the track Adrian was the other side so that the train was
04:33between us um and he had to crawl underneath the train and crawl through god knows what
04:37to come out the other side and he was quite badly hurt as well we had a severely lacerated head
04:42he uh dislocated his shoulder and broke two ribs so actually put his shoulder back in place before
04:47he crawled under the train to get to me a truly remarkable human being and he pinched your artery
04:52didn't he to stop you from from bleeding yeah so my my left leg was blown clean off and I severed
04:57the femoral artery my right leg from the knee down had been blown around 180 degrees and the bones
05:02had snapped and come through the shin um so when Adrian found me he basically said to me I'm not
05:06going to lie to you Dan this is really going to hurt and I thought I've been set on fire I know
05:10I've lost one leg the pole that I was leaning against I pulled out of myself and you're telling
05:14me this is going to hurt and he wasn't wrong because he basically forced his hand into what
05:17was left of the leg found the artery and pinched it shut and the irony of all of this you're going
05:22through this terrible pain and whatever and for so many people above ground they had no idea what was
05:29going on because what was happening to you was concealed and no one it wasn't until the bus blew
05:35that people actually realized you know the general audience realized what was what was going on
05:40yeah it's still something that um when I when I was writing a book I had some photographs taken
05:46outside the station to go into the book and I was sitting in the coffee shop in the entrance way to the
05:51station and you sit there watching people walk past and you just think you're totally oblivious to
05:55the horrors that went on down there and the lives that were lost and I think for me I just don't
06:01want it to be forgotten I think it was such a huge event and such a tragedy but I was going to ask you
06:06that do you think it has forgotten and do you know people get on with their lives life life moves on
06:13you know how do you think we are we are we are reminding people today but then we're all going
06:1920 years ago was that 20 years ago because we'd forgotten yeah I think if you look back over the last
06:25sort of 10 years since the 10th anniversary it doesn't get mentioned on the news on the anniversary
06:29it doesn't get mentioned in the newspapers and I think if you look at the way that 9-11's remembered
06:34in this country there's always something on about 9-11 we're constantly reminded about the atrocity
06:39that happened out there and that happened in the states and yet when it's on our own soil in our own
06:43country it's almost as if somebody just wants to wipe it from the public psyche as if all that let's
06:48let's just make sure that didn't we can pretend it didn't happen for some of us we can't we've got to
06:53live with that day every single day of the week and you've had to live with that day
06:57how was the experience for you writing this book I can imagine it's very painful but also very
07:02cathartic yeah I think for me because of the issues I've had with complex PTSD and depression and the
07:08impact that's had on my life I wanted to do something to kind of hopefully give a little bit
07:13of hope and I coined the phrase turning trauma into triumph to go from where I was 20 years ago
07:18and the horrendous state I was in to where I am now and life isn't easy and I really do struggle
07:24with my PTSD but I'm still here I'm still incredibly lucky to have a chance at a life so I wanted to
07:31write the book to hopefully for somebody that's struggling to read that and go yeah there is a
07:35way through with the right support and the right people I can potentially come through the other side
07:38of it you're talking there about how personally this affects you and obviously I understand that do you
07:46think though do you ever think of the bigger picture the security picture do you ever think that
07:50are we actually a safer country as a result of the awfulness you went through or does that not bother
07:57you no it's on my mind all the time I mean after after 7-7 me and a lot of other people were calling
08:03for a public inquiry we constantly have that shut down and I think the reason I don't think London
08:09is any safer is because we didn't have the public inquiry and I think if you jump forward a few years
08:13the shooting of John Charles de Menonies had a public inquiry the Manchester attack had a public
08:17inquiry Grenfell had a public inquiry all were absolutely warranted and deserved it 7-7 was the
08:23first attack of its kind in this country it was the biggest loss of life in a terrorist attack it was
08:27a first suicide attack and there were clear failings yet no public inquiry so nobody has ever been out
08:34to turn around and say to me 7-7 doesn't meet the criteria for a public inquiry but these do and this
08:40is where the difference is what do you think the failings were I think they know I think they know
08:46that the intelligence services and the government made a horrendous mistake I think the naivety and
08:52the arrogance of Tony Blair to think that you can go to war in a Middle Eastern country and it not have
08:55any repercussions on on home soil I think the fact that when Blair was interviewed he turned around
09:01and said that there is no link between al-Qaeda and the 7-7 attacks yet when Khan made a suicide
09:07video he openly states that that is the reason so you kind of get lied to constantly and I think
09:14that the the hope is that you just start believing the lies well some of us won't well Dan Biddle thank
09:20you so much for coming into the studio and it's um it is just it's fascinating listening to you and all
09:25that you you went through and you know it brings me back to where I was I was on holiday and I was
09:31watching this on satellite television and gripped I mean you just couldn't leave the television set just
09:36wondering what was happening next where the next uh explosion was going to be and and whatever and
09:42yet it's it is it was like yesterday that that particular day do you think your life stopped
09:49that day or have you been happy enough and successful enough to push things over the way I've had to deal
09:56with it is the the Dan Biddle that I was uh 8 52 on the 7th of July 2005 died at 8 52 on the 7th of July
10:042005 and I've had to reinvent myself and everything that I was trained to do work-wise I can no longer
10:10do so I've had to kind of start afresh and I've been incredibly lucky that that my wife Gem is is an
10:15amazing support and gets me through so much of it well listen you're an absolute credit and it's really
10:20interesting talking to you and hearing all that you have to say continue to get well continue to get
10:25better thank you very much thank you very much and this is the book here back from the dead the
10:30untold story of the seven seven bombings
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