15 years on from the terrifying 7/7 London bombings attack, Sajda Mughal features in the Metro. She speaks about her experience and how she has since then dedicated her life to tackle counter extremism.
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A SURVIVOR of the 7/7 London terror attacks has graphically recalled the moment one of the bombs exploded on a Tube train, as the capital marked the 15th anniversary of the killings.
Sajda Mughal, 37, was heading to work on the Piccadilly line when a bomb in a rucksack detonated in the front carriage as her train approached Russell Square.
‘I was running late that morning, I was rushing. I remember getting on to the Piccadilly Tube in north London, the train pulling into King’s Cross, letting on passengers and letting them off,’ the city worker told Kay Burley on Sky News.
‘And literally ten seconds into the tunnel towards Russell Square I remember the bomb going off because it was the loudest bang I ever heard. The train shook, the lights went off, dim emergency lighting came on, black smoke filling the carriages, people screaming, people hurt, people injured.
‘I remember seeing blood as if it was yesterday. I remember the pain, the anguish and I went into a state of shock thinking actually that July 7, 2005, is the day that I die.’
Some 26 people on the train were killed. Another 26 died from bombs going off on two other Tube trains at Edgware Road and Aldgate, and on a bus in Tavistock Square.
‘I never thought it was a bomb,’ she said. ‘I thought we had derailed, but my next thought was that the next train was leaving King’s Cross, there’s going to be a massive fireball and we’re all going to die.’
Ms Mughal resigned from her job and founded the Jan Trust charity, which works with Muslim women to tackle violence and extremism.
‘Never in a million years did I think it would happen in London,’ she said. ‘What was harder to digest was that it had been carried out by four males from within my own community.
‘I wanted to do something about it.’