Fireman ‘confronted tube bomber’

A firefighter told a court today how he confronted one of the alleged July 21 2005 bomb plotters moments after the man tried to detonate an explosion on an underground train.

Angus Campbell said he had been “cowed” by the explosion and saw the alleged bomber, Ramzi Mohammed, “screaming and shouting”, with smoke coming from behind him.

Mr Campbell, who was on his way to work on the day of the alleged attack, said he faced Mr Mohammed as others tried to flee the tube train carriage. He shouted: “What have you done, what have you done?”

The firefighter said a young mother opposite him, Nadia Baro, who had her nine-month son in a buggy with her, began screaming.

Ms Baro later told Woolwich crown court: “I was in such a panic. I did not know how a bomb worked and I thought we were going to die now.”

Mr Campbell and Ms Baro were among the passengers on a northbound Northern line train travelling between Stockwell and Oval stations, in south London, when Mr Mohammed allegedly tried to detonate an explosive device, the jury heard.

The prosecution alleges that 25-year-old Mr Mohammed, of North Kensington, west London, was part of a failed extremist Islamist plot by would-be suicide bombers to target London’s transport network.

He is one of six men charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

Mr Campbell said he tried and failed to get Mr Mohammed to lie on the floor before the accused fled.

The firefighter said there was a lot of sponge-like debris on the floor of the carriage, and before Mr Mohammed fled, he had asked him what it was.

The witness told the jury the defendant told him it was bread. The prosecution has already told the trial the alleged bombs were chapatti flour mixed with hydrogen peroxide.

When the trial opened last week, the prosecution said there was “no doubt” that the devices carried by the alleged plotters were “functional”. However, when the men attempted to set them off, the detonators fired but the main charges did not explode.

Today, Mr Campbell - who has been in the fire service for 21 years - said the incident took place in the middle of the day when the tube was “quite empty”. Before it happened, the train had filled up with 20 to 30 people coming into his carriage at Stockwell station, he added.

He told the jury he had been sitting in the middle portion of the carriage on a fold-down seat when he heard a blast.

“We were in a confined carriage and the explosion was loud,” he said. “My first memory was being cowed. I was crouched in my seat.

“I remember my arm being over my head. I looked up through my arm - the first thing I remember seeing is Mr Mohammed, who was screaming and shouting, and there was smoke issuing from behind him, from his back and, I think, to the floor.

“My first reaction was to run away. I wanted to run away. The woman opposite me was screaming … Mr Mohammed was shouting, and there was an awful lot of smoke in the carriage.”

The firefighter was shown CCTV footage of the moment the explosion went off and film of the aftermath, in which he is seen talking to a man the prosecution says is Mr Mohammed.

Mr Campbell told the court he had initially thought Mr Mohammed was hurt, saying: “I thought he was in pain, I thought he was a victim.”

However, when he questioned Mr Mohammed, he said the alleged bomber replied: “This is wrong, this is wrong.”

In his attempt to flee the carriage with Ms Baro and her child, Mr Campbell set off the alarm, which added to a “cacophony” of noise on the train, the jury was told.

The firefighter said he asked Mr Mohammed to lie down on the floor and offered to help him. “I shouted at him: ‘You are scaring us. I want to help you, I can help you, but I want you to lie down’ because I needed him to be submissive to me.”

However, rather than obeying, Mr Mohammed became increasingly agitated and aggressive, the court was told.

When the train finally pulled into the station, Mr Campbell said he thought the doors would remain closed. However, they opened, and Mr Mohammed was able to escape.

The other five alleged plotters are Muktar Said Ibrahim, 28, from Stoke Newington, north London; Yassin Omar, 26, from New Southgate, north London; 28-year-old Hussain Osman, of no fixed address; Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, of no fixed address; and 24-year-old Adel Yahya, of High Road, Tottenham.

All six men deny all the charges. The trial continues.

Press Association