“I heard a loud bang’ - hero Bassetlaw doctor saved lives at London bombings

A hero doctor at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Hospitals who helped save lives after the London bombings terrorist attack has said that the memories are ‘still fresh’ in his mind.
Awani Choudhary, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Hospitals NHS TrustAwani Choudhary, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Hospitals NHS Trust
Awani Choudhary, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon at Bassetlaw and Doncaster Hospitals NHS Trust

Speaking on the 10th anniversary of the July 7 attacks, in which 52 people lost their lives and 700 were injured as bombings were carried out on three tubes and a bus, Awani Choudhary said that he was in a meeting at the British Medical Association (BMA) headquarters in Tavistock Square when a suicide bomber blew up the Number 30 bus outside the building.

“I heard a loud bang,” he said.

“The first thing I saw was a hand which had been blown up but was still moving,” Mr Choudhary said. “We could see people on the floor and lying on the road, there was body parts and people scattered everywhere.”

For the first 30 minutes, the consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said that there was only four doctors treating people at the scene, as speculation increased that there was another bomb on the bus, which had been re-routed due to the tube blasts, causing many others to flee back inside the BMA headquarters.

Mr Choudhary said that a ‘controlled explosion’ was carried out on the package by the Special Forces and then people started to carry patients into the BMA House using tables covered in curtains.

“There are pictures of people being carried into the BMA house on what looks like a stretcher, that was not a stretcher, it was the broken window from the bus covered in curtains,” he said.

Despite numerous invitations to attend memorial services, he said that he politely declined to attend and that he had no special plans to mark the anniversary.

“The events are still fresh in my mind,” he added.

“The 10 years have passed but the memories have not gone.”

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