Families see horrific film of bloody Tube wreckage

Harrowing film of the wreckage of the 7/7 Tube trains was shown in public for the first time today.

Families of the dead and survivors watched in horror as the video was played at the High Court inquest. The first footage showed the scene at Aldgate eight hours after the first bomb.

The camera, which had no sound, moved from the bloodstained floor of the station concourse down the stairs to platform four and along the tracks to the Circle line train in the tunnel.

Ladders led from the rails to the doors of the train at chest height. One door on the second carriage, where the bomb was detonated, was entirely blown away, the others bent and warped, the windows smashed.

Inside, the seats were burnt, bare wiring jutted out at oblique angles, and charred adverts and Tube maps littered the floor amid piles of blood-soaked debris. Familiar objects stood out: a briefcase, an orange sports bag, a crumpled Daily Telegraph with the crossword half done, a torn Metro.

The 45 minutes of footage also showed scenes at King's Cross/Russell Square, Edgware Road and Tavistock Square. The horror of Russell Square, where 26 people died, was amplified by the claustrophobia of the tight, deep tunnel. Up to 1,500 passengers had been packed into six carriages. The video showed blood on the walls, floor and ceiling, and bags, clothes and shoes piled up in heaps.

Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquest, spoke of witnesses describing "a terrible scene of mangled flesh, debris and metal". The coroner, Lady Justice Hallett, had insisted the videos be edited to remove distressing signs of casualties. A shorter version was being put on the inquest's website.