A MAN who survived the 7/7 bombings has recalled the chilling moment he stared into the eyes of a terrorist just seconds before he blew himself up.
Dan Biddle, now 46, lost a spleen along with both legs and his left eye after a suicide bomb exploded next to him on a Tube train near Edgware Road station on that fateful morning 20 years ago.
Olivia WestDan Biddle recalls the moment he locked eyes with the suicide bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan[/caption]
GettyThe scene of the devastation near Edgware Road[/caption]
Gavin RodgersThe bombed Edgware Road Circle Line train where six victims died[/caption]
Olivia WestDan Biddle pictured above with the hero that saved his life, army medic Adrian Heili[/caption]
In the morning rush hour on July 7, 2005, four home-grown Islamic terrorists detonated suicide bombs on three Underground trains and a bus killing 52 commuters and wounding 748.
Dan, was in touching distance of lead bomber Mohammad Sidique Khan, on a rush-hour London Underground Circle line train.
But despite surviving his near-fatal wounds against the odds, he can never forget the moment he locked eyes with the crazed bomber.
At 8.52am Dan was leaning against the Perspex partition at the front of the second carriage on the Tube train travelling from Edgware Road towards Paddington.
Suicide bomber Khan, 30, from Leeds, was on the seat the other side of the Perspex, just six inches away.
Speaking to The Sun in a new documentary that is available on YouTube, Dan revealed: “As as we pulled out of Edgware Road station, I could feel somebody staring at me.
“I was just about to turn around and say, ‘What are you looking at?’, and I see him put his hand in the bag.
“He looked up at me, quickly lowered his eyes, put his right hand through the zip in the top of his bag and exploded himself.
“When the bomb went off in a brilliant white flash an immense amount of heat hit me.”
Khan had detonated a homemade bomb – made using an al-Qaeda-devised chemical recipe – that he was carrying in his rucksack.
The catastrophic explosion severed both Dan Biddle’s legs and sprayed coins into his face like bullets, blinding him in one eye.
With the one eye he had left he looked around the wrecked train and he confessed that the carnage he witnessed still haunts him decades on.
Dan exclusively told The Sun: “I was pinned down by one of the side panels of the train and as I put my hands under the metalwork, I could feel into my left leg – it was blown clean off from the blast.
“And my right leg was severed from the knee down. At that point I just screamed for help.
“It wasn’t that I wanted to be saved, I just wanted someone to know who I was.
“I wanted someone to tell my family, ‘I was there with him, he wasn’t alone’.
“That was really important to me.”
You can watch The Sun’s new documentary Inside 7/7 Britain’s worst ever terror attack here.
The device killed David Foulkes, 22, Jennifer Nicholson, 24, Laura Webb, 29, Jonathan Downey, 34, Colin Morley and Michael Brewster, both 52.
Dan only survived because brave former Army medic Adrian Heili ignored his own injuries to crawl under the mangled carriage to stop him bleeding to death.
The former military medic had blood pouring down his face and a dislocated shoulder but instead of fleeing he stepped over several charred bodies and headed towards Dan’s cries for help.
The SunDan Biddle exclusively speaking to The Sun[/caption]
Ian Whittaker – The SunThe memorial to the 52 victims of the 7/7 bombing in Hyde Park[/caption]
HandoutThe London Underground train which was bombed at Aldgate tube station during co-ordinated attacks[/caption]
Dan told The Sun: “I heard this really deep South African accent shout back.
“He said: ‘My name’s Adrian keep talking to me I’ll find you’.
“Adrian is an incredibly brave man, he managed to lift the debris off me, he used his belt to tourniquet my right leg, he then pushed his hand into what was left of my left leg found the artery and pinched it shut.”
The pair who are best of pals have supported each other through the horrors they have each endured in the last 20 years since fate brought them together.
Dan continued: “The bombers were murderers, you can dress it up how you like, they were murderers.
“In the space of 30 seconds I came face to face with the worst humanity has to offer in him and then moments later I come face to face with the very best of it in Adrian.
“And then Graham the paramedic, the fire brigade and all the rest of them.
“As long as we have got people like that, terrorists won’t win.”
Survivors are now preparing to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 bombings.
But despite being the most injured survivor of the London bombings, both Dan and the hero who saved his life have not been invited.
Dan added: “I’ve died three times on an operating table and had the same number of goes at killing myself. Luckily, the doctors were brilliant at saving my life and I was crap at ending it.
“It’s 20 years since the bombing and it’s still as crystal clear in my head now as if it happened 30 seconds ago.
“Straight after the explosion, you could have heard a pin drop. It was almost as if everybody had just taken a big breath.
“And then it was like opening the gates of hell. Screaming like I’ve never heard before.”
Olivia WestDan with his wife Gem[/caption]
APFirst responder Paul Dadge helps an injured passenger at Edgware Road tube station[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
