Rescuers used Sellotape and hotel tables to treat and move victims of the 7/7 bus bombing, the inquest into the attacks heard yesterday.
Suicide bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, killed 13 people when he blew himself up on a number 30 bus in London’s Tavistock Square on July 7, 2005.
Constable Christopher Mitchell, one of the first police officers to reach the scene, described how rescuers used whatever they could lay their hands on to evacuate casualties.
Tables from hotels were used as stretchers to move the injured into the courtyard of the headquarters of the British Medical Association (BMA), located next to the devastated bus.
He also helped to move survivor Mark Beck, who lost his right leg in the blast, to a nearby hotel for treatment.
The officer said: “His leg was in quite a bad way. Somebody got hold of some Sellotape, we used it and some bits of wood we found on the road to make a splint and we Sellotaped his leg together.”
Constable Mitchell, a former soldier who was six months out of his probationary period with the Metro-politan Police, said he asked for all buses in the area to be stopped and searched.
He feared further bombs could go off after Camille Scott-Bradshaw, one of those wounded in the bus blast, told him she saw a passenger on the back of the number 30 “fiddling” with a package before the blast.
The officer told the inquest it seemed “commonsense” that other buses should be halted and passengers evacuated.
The families of some of those killed in the Tavistock Square bombing have questioned why London’s entire transport network was not shut down after three Tube trains were blown up an hour earlier.
The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, paid tribute to Constable Mitchell’s efforts.
She told him: “Despite the risk to yourself, you did everything possible to save lives.
“I have no doubt your efforts and those of your colleagues made a significant difference. I commend you.”
A GP who helped to treat the injured and dying was hailed for the “incredible job” she did.
Dr Michelle Du-Feu happened to be travelling on another bus passing through Tavistock Square when Hussain detonated his device.
She immediately got off to help the victims of the blast, the inquest heard.
The attacks launched on July 7 2005 by Hussain, Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay, 19, killed 52 people, as well as themselves. They injured more than 700 people.
The inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London is expected to last until March.
