7/7 rescue effort struggled to cope

DRAMATIC phone calls revealed how the emergency services struggled to cope with the chaos sparked by the July 7 suicide bomb attacks.

Urgent conversations among key staff were played in public for the first time as the long–awaited inquests into the 52 people killed finally began. Among the dead was Austerlands man David Foulkes (22), a former Hulme Grammar School pupil who had moved to London to start a new job. The tapes laid bare how London Underground officials were plunged into confusion as explosions rocked Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations in 2005. Transport staff were left in the dark as the blasts rendered CCTV systems useless, sent out a blizzard of automatic warning messages and left telephone systems overloaded.

Tube staff were still debating whether the rapidly unfolding tragedy was the result of a power surge at least 44 minutes after the first explosion.

The inquest heard that the emergency response was marred by a series of failings that might have delayed urgent medical care to those underground.