Tragedy mimutes away (From Gazette Series)

Tragedy mimutes away

A CAM couple were only minutes away from being caught up in the terrorist bomb attacks on London a week ago.

Alistair and Margaret Swan, from Frederick Thomas Road, passed through King's Cross station on the tube shortly before a bomb exploded there on another train.

The couple were in London to see the graduation of their youngest daughter Corinne.

Mr and Mrs Swan, Corinne and her boyfriend Ben were travelling southbound on the Northern Line when the first hint of a problem emerged just after the train had left Angel - the station after King's Cross. "The tube driver came on the microphone and told everyone we could not stop at the next station because of a power failure," said Mr Swan.

"We wanted to get off at Bank but that was closed as well so we had to go on to London Bridge where the driver said the whole network was shutting down so everyone had to get off."

On reaching the surface, the family were met with a crescendo of noise but did not realise the extent of what was going on.

Mr Swan added: "All that you could hear were sirens but we didn't think too much about it, we were just focused on getting to the university. "We did not have any idea about all the explosions."

The four took a taxi to the Queen Mary University in Mile End and gradually began to realise what was going on.

Mr Swan said: "We came round a roundabout and all of a sudden we could see police with guns and firemen getting into their suits." Once they reached the university they found out more about the devastating bombing and realised that they had been within minutes of being involved in one of the blasts.

The graduation ceremony went ahead with only an hour's delay and then the family had to try and get back to Corinne's house in Tottenham. With no public transport, they had to walk the seven miles from Mile End - although they were not alone.

"It was just like walking away from a football ground," said Mr Swan. "There were hundreds of people walking out of London with nobody coming the other way."

Unfortunately for Mrs Swan and her daughter, they were wearing their best shoes for the graduation ceremony, which definitely were not designed for long walks.

Luckily, after around an hour of walking they found a corner shop and bought two pairs of flip-flops for £4.

Mrs Swan said: "Corinne was almost on her hands and knees by then. We just couldn't go on.

"Four pounds was amazing - we would have paid anything for them at the time."

They eventually made it back to Tottenham after two and a half hours of walking and Mr and Mrs Swan travelled back to Cam the following day. Mrs Swan was full of praise for the work of the emergency services in the capital.

"I can't say enough about those people," she said. "The situation was handled expertly with the minimum of fuss and without putting people in fear."

Mr Swan added: "The train driver was very cool to just say it was a power failure. You could imagine what would have happened if he had said there had been an bomb."