Paramedic was sent to wrong Tube station on 7/7

A medic who could have been among the first on scene after the London terror attacks was sent to the wrong location in an apparent communication blunder.

Lawrence Ward told the inquest he was driving a rapid response vehicle to Edgware Road Tube, which would have been "a lot faster" than an ambulance.

But the emergency medical technician only reached the bombed train half an hour after the explosion because he was sent to Praed Street in Paddington rather than Chapel Street, where Edgware Road station is located.

On arriving at Praed Street, Mr Ward found himself alongside a London Fire Brigade crew but saw no sign of an emergency.

"The Fire Brigade was as perplexed as I was," he told the inquest into the deaths of the 52 innocent people killed.

A call to Central Ambulance Control for more information was of little help. "I remember them saying they were getting updated calls but we still didn't actually get where it should be," he said.

Mr Ward took a chance and drove towards nearby Edgware Road station.

"The place we went to was a Tube station at Praed Street," he said. "I just thought I would have a shot to see if it was the other Tube station which I actually went to."

He arrived on the track at 9.20am - about half an hour after plot ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan detonated his homemade rucksack bomb. Other emergency workers were already on scene.

The inquests heard how rescue teams struggled with bad lighting, poor communications and a lack of equipment, working in dark, cramped conditions.

Breathing was "very difficult" and the air was thick with smoke.

"The only lighting we had was a little pen light which we checked patients' responses with," Mr Ward said. "It was a very confusing, very dark, very terrifying scene."

He had to pass over those who were "groaning and moaning, shouting and screaming" to treat those who showed fewer signs of life.

But he added: "The only thing I found frustrating for me was the lack of communications with upstairs, if you like, because I only had my mobile phone with me and that just didn't work on the Underground at all."

This left him unable to "reaffirm the seriousness of the situation", he said.

Leaving the scene, he walked outside to smoke "about seven" cigarettes before he was dispatched to another Tube station.

Coroner Lady Justice Hallet said: "I can only imagine how horrific a scene it was that confronted you."

Another paramedic based at St John's Wood said staff realised they were dealing with a major incident following a call from the scene asking all personnel at the ambulance station to go to Edgware Road.

Jesal Joshi told the inquest his team spent less than two minutes between receiving the call, grabbing extra equipment from the store cabinet, and leaving the station.

"I think we all used our common sense and experience and judgment," he said.