London commuters relive Parsons Green Tube terror

This is the terrifying moment passengers fled for their lives as a ‘Mother of Satan’ bomb tore through a packed commuter train.

Heart-stopping footage, released by the Met Police, shows the blast engulf the London Underground train at Parsons Green station last year. 

Panic erupts as injured commuters run for their lives in the moments after the explosion.

The harrowing video was released as commuters today relived the terrifying moment a bomb detonated inside their carriage. 

Terrified passengers flee for their lives as a fireball engulfs part of the tube train at Parsons Green Station 

Panic erupts as injured commuters run for their lives in the moments after the explosion

The harrowing video was released as commuters today relived the terrifying moment a bomb detonated inside their carriage

Stephen Nash told jurors at the trial of suspected bomber, Ahmed Hassan, that he was reading a newspaper, ‘oblivious’ to what was going on before he reached the west London stop. 

He told the court: ‘At Parsons Green there was a loud bang. There was a blinding flash to my left and I was engulfed in flames. I was thrown to the ground. The flames were overwhelming.’

Mr Nash said his head and back were caught by the flames. He said: ‘It was intense heat. I thought I had lost my ears. I thought my head was on fire.’

Iraqi Hassan, 18, is accused of building a deadly explosive device, packed with 5lbs of knives, screwdrivers and nails for ‘maximum carnage’, at the foster home where he was given refuge.

Victoria Holloway (left, at court today), who suffered a flash burn to her face (right), said the smell after the explosion reminded her of the lingering smell in science class 

The bomb contained 14oz of the explosive TATP, commonly known as ‘Mother of Satan’, and sent a fireball through a District Line carriage packed with rush-hour commuters – injuring 30 – at Parsons Green station in West London on September 15 last year. 

He told the court he smelled burning hair and bleach. Mr Nash said he woke up after a couple seconds to find he was the only person left on the train.

‘I was knocked out so I woke up on the carriage floor and it was a matter of seconds,’ he said.

‘I called out to the Tube. Just as I got to the doors, the doors started to close.

‘It was a little bit scary and I called out onto the platform.’

Mr Nash was taken to an emergency triage centre in a local pub. He had severe burns to his head and ears which were treated by a plastic surgeon as well as blisters to his mouth and nose.

He added: ‘My hair was burnt off at the back. I lost my hair in clumps at the top.’

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave asked: ‘Was there a moment when you were the last person left in the carriage?’

Mr Nash replied: ‘That’s my recollection.’

Victoria Holloway, who suffered a flash burn to her face, said the smell after the explosion reminded her of the lingering smell in science class.

Hassan allegedly made the bomb using the explosive triacetate triperoxide (TATP) which was packed into a Tupperware container and glass vase inside the white bucket

Bucket bomb witnesses, Aimee Colville (left), and Stephen Nash (right) at the Old Bailey today

She said: ‘It was a loud bang, I had headphones in and I still heard, it was extremely loud.

‘I heard this whoosh of things kind of similar to if you turned on a Bunsen Burner and lit a match. I saw these bright orange flames… they were touching my legs, I could see them wrapping around my knees.

‘The air was full of dust and debris and like a powdery substance which smelled quite strongly of chemicals.

‘It made me think of when you were in science class and could smell lingering smells.’ 

Iraqi Ahmed Hassan (pictured), 18, is accused of building a deadly explosive device, packed with 5lbs of knives, screwdrivers and nails to inflict ‘maximum carnage’ on a District Line Tube train at Parsons Green, London on September 15 last year

Aimee Colville, whose hair caught fire in the blast, said: ‘I was standing in the middle of the tube I was holding the centre pole with my arm and I was facing down the tube and I heard a loud bang, like a cracking bang.’

She said she first thought the train had broken down until she saw a ‘wall of glass’ flying past her’ and a man in front of her ‘jolt forward’.

‘I don’t know how I came to be on the floor.

‘That morning I had curled my hair and I had put hairspray in my hair so when the flames came over me my hair caught fire.’

Another passenger Lucinda Glazebrook wept as she entered the witness box to give evidence from behind a curtain.

She said: ‘All I saw was a fireball above a man’s head in front of the doors. I felt the heat on my face.

‘I heard people screaming and I held the pole and then I turned around and I saw the doors were open.

‘I kept touching my face and my hair was coming out in chunks and I asked somebody if my face was burnt.

‘I felt the heat from the fireball, I was scared of what it had done to my face.’

Hassan is captured on CCTV collecting chemicals to make his ‘Mother of Satan’ bomb 

Ms Glazebrook was treated in a restaurant opposite the station before being taken to St Thomas’ Hospital.

Mr Justice Haddon-Cave thanked her for giving her evidence as she left the witness box in tears.

Craig Palmer, a serving Army officer, heard the blast and rushed to investigate, the court heard.

He said: ‘Just moments really from arriving I seem to recall there was to my right towards the end of the train there was an event which was a flash in my peripheral vision, it sounded like a woof to me.’

Mr Palmer said passengers were screaming and then there was ‘a wall of people coming through the train’.

‘I turned to face that carriage – that’s my training; that’s my instinct’ he said.

‘I had seen the wall of faces in terror rushing past me’.

He stopped off onto the platform and went to investigate the empty carriage full of debris and decided it was a bomb attack. 

The Old Bailey heard that it was a ‘matter of luck’ the bomb did not fully detonate and no-one was killed.  

Explosives officer Andrew Gee, who was responsible for examining and dismantling the device in-situ, gave evidence at the Old Bailey.

He explained that he used a handheld device called a Trudefender to check what was left of the bomb for explosives.

The jury heard that depending on the quality of the sample the device could take up to five minutes to identify a substance.

But Mr Gee said: ‘In this instance we had a hit basically in 10-15 seconds.

‘I think it was an 87% hit for TATP.’

Mr Gee arrived at the scene at 8.50am, by which time emergency services were already there.

On examination, he ascertained the bomb had partially functioned.

The officer explained that as he worked on the device, the plastic bucket and bag continued to melt, while the glass vase cracked from the heat.

Jurors were then shown a replica of the bomb Ahmed Hassan allegedly planted on the train.

It was made of a silver Lidl frozen goods bag and contained a white bucket, a tupperware container wrapped in foil and a glass vase.

Sugar was used in the replica as a substitute for the explosive substance.

The court also saw an example of the 2.2kg of shrapnel that was packed into the home-made device.

Jurors were told that Hassan’s fingerprints were found on the Tube carriage, on the white plastic bucket, and on a pair of trousers covering the bucket.

His DNA was also found at the scene.

Hassan, from Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey, denies attempted murder and using the chemical compound TATP to cause an explosion that was likely to endanger life on September 15 last year.

Yesterday, jurors were also told that:

• Hassan sneaked into Britain through the Channel Tunnel aged 15
• He openly declared his links to IS when he applied to the Home Office for asylum

• The teenager was allegedly seen by staff at a charity-run shelter looking at an IS video and listening to jihadi songs, yet no-one raised the alarm;

• While his foster parents were on holiday, Hassan ordered bomb ingredients on Amazon using a £20 gift voucher he won after being named ‘student of the year’;

• He loaded his bucket bomb with shrapnel, including screwdrivers and drill bits bought from Asda and Aldi.

The alleged bomber openly declared his links to IS when he applied for asylum after arriving in Britain as a lone child refugee, the court was told. 

In his first interview with immigration officials on January 18, 2016, Hassan said he had been trained to kill by jihadis with 1,000 other people, adding: ‘They trained us on how to kill. It was all religious-based.’

But he claimed he went along with it only because he feared the fanatics could kill his family, and said he was claiming asylum in Britain because he was ‘in fear of Islamic State’, the court heard.

Prosecutor Alison Morgan described what Hassan – who had no identity documents to verify his name or age – said to immigration officials.

She said: ‘He was forced to go on his own otherwise they would kill his family and he shared training with 1,000 people and they would spend three to four hours a day in the mosque.’

Ahmed Hassan being given a ‘Student of the Year’ award at Brooklands College. He used the £20 Amazon token prize to buy hydrogen peroxide for the Parsons Green bomb, the Old Bailey heard

The 15-year-old denied being a sleeper IS fighter sent to Europe and claimed he fled to Britain after being freed by Iraqi soldiers.

But shortly after his arrival in the UK, Hassan was seen by staff at a shelter in Horley, Surrey, run by children’s charity Barnados secretly watching a video featuring masked men with machine guns bearing an IS flag, it was said.

He was also allegedly caught listening to a ‘call to arms’ song, with the lyrics: ‘We are coming with you to the slaughter in your home and country.’

Despite this worrying behaviour, the teenager was referred by social services to Brooklands College, where he was given a mentor who helped him find a foster home in Sunbury, Surrey.

At the college, where he studied media, the jury heard the teenager made a film as part of his course showing a mobile phone being destroyed, in an apparent rehearsal of his efforts to hide his tracks following the bombing. 

He also kept on a memory stick a series of disturbing songs known as ‘nasheeds’ encouraging ‘violent military action’ in support of IS, it was said.

Barely 18 months after his admission to the Home Office, Hassan shopped for bomb ingredients on Amazon, and at Aldi and Asda, jurors heard.

He allegedly ordered a five-litre bottle of hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid from Amazon in August before assembling the bomb while his foster parents were on holiday for a week.

The day before the Parsons Green bombing, Hassan was caught on CCTV in an Asda supermarket shopping for batteries and a screwdriver set before buying drill bits from an Aldi store to add to the bomb, the court was told.

On September 15, Hassan allegedly carried his bomb in a bucket hidden in an Aldi shopping bag through Wimbledon station, calmly walking past school children and commuters.

The Old Bailey heard the teenager loaded his bucket bomb with shrapnel, including screwdrivers and drill bits bought from Asda and Aldi. Pictured: acid Hassan bought 

In a toilet on the concourse, Hassan set the modified kitchen timer on the device before boarding the train, the jury heard.

He got off at Putney Bridge station, two minutes before the bomb went off at just before 8.20am – shortly after the train arrived at Parsons Green, the court heard.

The bomb caused a stampede as hundreds rushed to get out of the station.

Miss Morgan said: ‘It was rush hour and the train was crowded. There were approximately 93 people in the carriage when the device detonated. The partial explosion created a large fireball.

‘Some in the carriage were caught by the flames and sustained significant burns. Many ran in fear and panic. They were fortunate.

‘Had the device fully detonated, it is inevitable that serious injury and significant damage would have been caused within the carriage. Those in close proximity to the device may well have been killed.

‘It was a matter of luck that the device did not function as intended… The defendant intended to kill people.’

She added: ‘He never intended to be injured by the device himself. Instead he had created a timer system to ensure that it detonated in his absence.’

Hassan, wearing a navy jumper, stared at the ground as the jury were shown the chilling footage of commuters standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a packed train sipping from coffee flasks and reading newspapers, when the carriage was suddenly engulfed in a wall of flame.

Hassan was captured on CCTV walking away from Putney Bridge station without a backward glance, before boarding a bus travelling past his target to see the carnage unfold, Miss Morgan said.

When the bus drove past Parsons Green station, he glanced out of the window before coolly removing the memory card from his mobile phone, chewing it and stuffing it down the side of the seat, she said.

In a bid to avoid detection, Hassan changed his clothes several times and bought a new mobile phone to check BBC News coverage of the blast as he took a series of trains to Richmond, Brighton and finally Ashford in Kent. 

He was arrested the next day at 7.52am at the Port of Dover. He was carrying £2,320 in cash, it was said.

The court heard that the defendant’s asylum claim was unresolved at the time of his arrest.

Hassan, from Sunbury, denies attempted murder and causing an explosion likely to endanger life or damage property.

The trial continues.