I was on all fours, examining the explosive materials I found in the suicide bombers' kitchen – pepper, bleach and hair dye: Forensic expert tells explosive stories in gripping new book - Counter-IED Report

I was on all fours, examining the explosive materials I found in the suicide bombers’ kitchen – pepper, bleach and hair dye: Forensic expert tells explosive stories in gripping new book

Posted onJuly 16, 2022July 17, 2022AuthorCIEDR

It was as close to a vision of hell as I am ever likely to come across. I was in a dark tunnel of the London Underground, 100ft beneath Russell Square station. All the living and injured had been evacuated – but the dead remained. Searching the mangled carriages of a Tube train, I had to step gingerly. Bodies and bits of bodies were piled along the seats with little yellow signs saying ‘DEAD’ on them where the paramedics had done their best.

It was hard to move around by the light of a torch, but it didn’t take long to conclude that the unfortunate people in the front carriage had taken the worst of the blast.

I’m a bomb expert rather than a pathologist, and I can recognise the characteristic injuries caused by high explosives, including traumatic amputation of limbs and scorching of flesh and clothing. The more I looked, the more the true scale of the carnage that day became apparent.