The Russell Square mystery

This is Russell Square station from which Rachel North emerged on the day of the London bombings July 7th 2005. Many people came out of this station ( where reporters were soon waiting) and still it is being said that only passengers who emerged from carriage 1. the bombed carriage emerged from this station. All the others went to Kings Cross, we are told. Everyone from the carriages behind the bombed carriage. Rachel North was the first person to give this story to the press. We ask how is it possible that so many bombed carriage passengers could have emerged from Russell Square? We suggest that many other passengers emerged from this station. We believe that those in the bombed carriage when the bomb went off suffered extremely serious injury and were not able to rush to escape.

We believe that other passengers from other parts of the train cut past or through carriage 1. while they were in the tunnel and made their way up to Russell Square. We do not believe that anyone in the bombed carriage survived the bomb blast without injury. We do not believe that no one broke out of other carriages. Evidence suggests that they did in droves and this is understandable. Another example of a person emerging without injury at Russell Square is Angelo Power, a lawyer from central London. He famously said 'We were like sardines in there, just waiting to die.' Obviously, you and other passengers from your carriage are not like "sardines" once a bomb has gone off, because everything is blasted away. If you chance to survive you will be one of a few left and there will be lots of space in the carriage. It is the passengers from the other carriages behind carriage 1. who will have still been squashed together like sardines and unable to get out because of the jammed doors. Power was in one of the carriages behind carriage 1. according to this he was in the carriage nearest the back. Power was not injured either. His picture shows a man who looks as if he has survived a long arduous struggle but not an injury. Like Rachel's case. He also says:

"We were like sardines in there, just waiting to die," said Angelino Power, 43, a barrister on his way to a court hearing. He was catapulted out of his seat as the bomb exploded. "

If he was catapulted out of his seat in the back carriage which he has the honesty to report that he was in, can we really believe that Rachel North survived the blast in the bombed carriage without a scratch? Mr. Power wouldn't seem to believe it.

'Trapped like sardines''.

"Angelo Power, a barrister emerging from the station, said a loud explosion rocked his train as it left King’s Cross.
There were flashes of light, people were screaming and smoke began to billow into the carriage, stuck in one of the Underground’s narrow and barely lit tunnels.
There was mayhem as 20 to 30 minutes passed before police reached the train to take survivors to safety. Women passed out and agitation turned to hysteria as people smashed the glass windows to escape billowing smoke but feared jumping out on to what they thought could be live electric lines.
“We were trapped like sardines waiting to die,” Power said. "

We believe that many of these survivors from other carriages went down the tracks towards Russel Square and came out from there. They cut past carriage 1. or they cut through it. Rachel North was one of these passengers. We believe that this stands to reason. The train was exactly half way through its journey between Kings Cross and Russel Square when the bomb went off.

We can see that people at the back and in other carriages noticed that there was some smoke seeping under the doors but there will be smoke from the engines when they have undergone damage. This smoke will seep under the base of the train. Not from the chemical bomb in carriage 1. which does not produce smoke or make a loud noise..

Angelo Power gives a much fuller statement on this link which we provide.

"ANGELO POWER: People started to scream because there was a burning smell, and everyone, to cut a long story short, thought they were going to die. People started saying prayers, praying to God, panicking, breaking the carriage windows with their bare hands, anything to get oxygen into the carriage, because the more people tried, the more distressed they became, women passing out. People started getting very agitated. There was no communication from any drivers.
Everyone was in pitch black, then the emergency lights came on. And more and more smoke started coming into the carriage. And we were there for something like twenty to thirty minutes, during which the smoke intensified, the screaming intensified, the hysteria—and that’s what it was—became almost to a state of pandemonium. Then eventually somebody said that someone at the back of the carriage, because I was on the second to the back carriage, had managed to force the door open. But they wouldn’t get out, because they thought they were going to be electrocuted by the live train lines. Then smoke was coming down the tunnels, so nobody would go out that exit, no one would go out the other exit, because as I understand it, there was a bomb in the middle of the carriage. So we were all trapped like sardines waiting to die, and I honestly thought my time was up.
But I survived, as did everyone else, and finally, after about thirty minutes or so, people started to leave the carriage, and to their credit, in a very controlled manner. But as I exited, I saw people’s belongings scattered all over the place. People were physically injured, and the carriage windows were all smashed. "

Angelo exited the train and saw that people from the carriages all the way up to carriage 1. had been smashing their way out and leaving their belongings in their rush to escape. He is observing this on his way up towards the bombed carriage, carriage 1. It is unclear whether he walked up through the train towards carriage 1. or whether he walked along the tracks.

He says:

"ANGELO POWER: The others I saw, physical injuries, some had marks to the face. The carriage windows had punctured their skin. Others were physically lying on the floor, because they basically suffered smoke inhalation. Others in the main carriage, as I understand, are severely injured, if not dead. So, but at the end of the day, I honestly thought I was going to die. I’m just grateful to be alive."

Angelo Power's account could confirm our suggestion that there was room enough between the train and the wall of the tunnel for the survivors to walk along the length of the train and cut past carriage 1. and make their way to Russell Square. If there was room for the survivors from carriage 2. to the back carriage to get out of their carriages and walk back to Kings Cross station then there was room between carriage 1. and the wall of the tunnel for people to pass by carriage 1. and walk to Russell Square. Lots of people probably made their way up to carriage 1. from inside the train and tried to pass through that carriage in order to get out. It is not reasonable to assume that in what has been described by Mr. Power as 'pandemonium' that no one tried it. Mr. Power's account suggests that many did.

We can see that a lot of problems have arisen from the press choosing to listen to only a very small selection of witnesses, one of whom "Rachel North" may be enjoying a profitable scam.

Important: Rachel stated that she waited in the front carriage 1. for half an hour holding hands and being with with other passengers before help came. One passenger from carriage 1. did not see her or hear her there, he says. He sent us a comment. But it is the other carriages that contained witnesses who speak about waiting for this time before help came. Should it be concluded that in carriage 1. where the passengers had easy access to the driver that he made the ones who could move wait for twenty minutes before helping them out down a ladder? This is what Rachel has suggested. She said they were in carriage 1. for half an hour before the driver let them out. We think he must have let out those who could possibly move straight away.

What else would he have been doing.... sitting there having his lunch for all that time?

We think Rachel North should explain herself. We believe that she was never on carriage 1. when the bomb went off and that she was on one of the other carriages. The barrister says that all the people on carriage 1. were severely injured or dead. Rachel has not got a mark on her.