'It was like a ghost town, just a 26 bus, nothing else'

By Adam Fresco

TARIQ KHAN was lying in bed with the flu when he first realised something was wrong. The normally busy, noisy street outside his third-floor flat in Hackney had gone quiet, there was no sound of traffic or conversation drifting up from the bus stop directly opposite.

The banking security consultant was telephoned by a friend who told him that a bus parked opposite his home had a bomb on board. As he digested the information, he could “hear” the quiet outside.

He looked out of his bedroom window and found the place deserted. “It was surreal, there was no one about at all, the shops were shut and the street was completely empty.

“It was like a scene from 28 Days Later when the man goes outside and everyone has gone. There was just the 26 bus opposite with its hazard lights on. Nothing else at all.”

He quickly got dressed, thinking he could get out of the area, but as he tried to leave his building a neighbour told him that police had warned them to stay away from the windows as far back in their flats as possible and that they could not leave.

“I was thinking, ‘why didn’t the police tell me’ and I immediately took down some shelves and wedged them against the window and shut the doors to all the rooms that faced the street. I looked out of another window and I could see the rucksack on the top deck at the back. Some stuff, like the stuffing from a padded envelope, had exploded out of it.

“I had no idea if it was a small bomb or large bomb that would blow my building away or even if it was a dirty bomb that would release some sort of dangerous chemical. I was scared and went out to speak to a few other neighbours to try and keep our spirits up. There was a lot of nervous laughter.

“The street is normally so busy with traffic and you can hear the people at the bus stop talking, but there was just nothing, it was like a ghost town outside, it was very surreal. Then the bus started beeping, that was scary, but it stopped after about 15 minutes. The only thing I could see at first was the police tape, then a bit later on a few policemen were visible about 300 metres away.”

Mr Khan said the rucksack was clearly visible lying on the floor and had the words Fitness First on it. As day turned to evening he said that only one person had briefly boarded the bus, looked around and then left. “I don’t know when we will be allowed to leave and there are people who live in these flats who are still stuck on the other side of the cordon.” >>>continued

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1704073,00.html