The driver of a bus attacked in the July 7, 2005 suicide bombings in London said Friday he had urged passengers to disembark just moments before the explosion, according to AP. George Psaradakis told an inquest hearing that his double-decker bus had been diverted from its usual route by a police blockade and he had advised commuters to get off and walk. At the time, Psaradakis was unaware that the reason his number 30 bus route had been changed was because of the earlier attacks by fellow bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay on three subway cars on the London underground. «I couldn't imagine we were at the epicenter of a terrorist attack,» he told the hearing. «I was a million miles away from that thought.» He said between 30 and 50 people jumped off his vehicle shortly before 18-year-old Hasib Hussain detonated a bomb. Authorities believe Hussain boarded the bus after his initial plan to target a subway car was thwarted due to delays. He attempted to call his fellow bombers and was caught on CCTV walking through a drugstore and into a McDonald's restaurant. Hussain detonated his device almost an hour after three bombs were exploded on the subway network. Psaradakis told the inquest that he could not remember Hussain from the flood of passengers boarding his bus after subway journeys were disrupted. He said he found nothing suspicious during a routine search of his bus before starting his route. The driver, who was uninjured, said the blast blew away his windshield and covered him in dust. But he pulled himself from the wreckage and sought out injured passengers. -- SPA
