The Press Association
LONDON — Delays in sending ambulances to help those injured in the 7/7 bus bombing in London have been condemned as “totally unacceptable’’.
The first paramedic crew arrived at the scene within minutes of the blast, the inquest for the 52 victims of the July 7 2005 terrorist attacks heard.
But records show it was nearly an hour after the explosion before more ambulances were dispatched to assist with treating horrifically-wounded survivors.
London Ambulance Service (LAS) received detailed calls about the incident within minutes of suicide bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, blowing himself up on a number 30 bus in Tavistock Square at 9.47am.
However, senior LAS managers controlling the operation did not have access to this information in their command room and further ambulances were only sent to Tavistock Square at 10.42am, the inquest was told.
Christopher Coltart, barrister for some of the bereaved families, questioned ambulance operations manager Paul Gibson about the reasons for this hold-up.
He asked: “Are you prepared to accept that the failure of central ambulance control to dispatch any ambulances to the scene for half an hour after it was made aware of the position was totally unacceptable?’'
Mr Gibson replied: “I can’t explain the decisions that ambulance control made because I wasn’t there at the time.’'
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