Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

`A policeman had tears down his face...'

Gary Finn
Friday 30 April 1999 23:02 BST
Comments

"IT WAS like being in a horror movie." Sacha Teulon was still dazed, drawing heavily on a cigarette as she described the carnage. Her eyes seemed to be picking out scenes stamped indelibly into the middle distance, replaying the effects the nail bomb had wrought on to some internal canvas.

"We were sat just round the corner when we heard the blast. I ran to the pub and it was just a blackened hole. It was like a scene from a zombie movie; people stumbling around, half dazed, some with drinks in their hands, others covered in blood.

"I remember a black policeman ran past me to the pub with tears streaming down his face, shouting at people to get away. He was hysterical. I saw one guy with his leg in shreds. One woman just walked up to me covered in blood. She didn't know what was going on.

"On the other side of the street opposite the pub was a man lying with his leg in tatters and next to him four people sat on white plastic seats covered in blood, not talking, just in total silence.

"It was surreal. It was mindless. Why would you do this?"

Soho Square was eerily quiet after the paramedics and ambulances had cleared the scene of the injured and the dying.

Where bank holiday revellers and office workers had been before the blast, last night there was just medical debris, empty drip bags, foil sheeting, blankets and dressings strewn around the empty square.

When the bomb exploded, Tony Howard's instinct was to run into the pub to help the injured. He said: "You couldn't breathe inside because of the sulphur everywhere... The injuries were horrific. There were bones sticking out of legs, people's faces were burnt - it's difficult to describe it was so horrendous... I stayed with one man whose leg was partially blown off; you could see the bones in his leg. I just tried to stop the pressure in his leg and tried to stem the flow of blood."

Peter Searle, a local cabaret artist who lives opposite the pub, said: "I was in my flat watching the news. The windows were open because it was a lovely, sunny evening and I heard a big bang. It was the most enormous explosion. The windows were shattered. I knew it was a bomb immediately. I looked out of the window and the debris was still flying. There was dust in the air and people were streaming out of the pub.

"The Admiral Duncan is a long tunnel and there was nowhere for the blast to go except outwards.

"The front of the pub was blown off and the sign and canopy had come down. It must have been a bag on the floor because all the injuries I saw were leg injuries. People's legs were shredded. They were screaming and staggering out of the pub.

"I know the landlord. I have friends who drink there. They were screaming with anger that they had done this.

"To put a bomb in a pub is the most evil act."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in