- 7/7/2025
A survivor of the 7/7 bombings has recalled his horrific ordeal 20 years on, telling GB News he believed he was "going to die".Dan Biddle sat down with Breakfast hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ellie Costello as he marked 20 years since the suicide bomb attacks took place.FULL STORY HERE.
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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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