Browse Sections

• Business
• Education
• Special reports

Bomb terror duo flee for their lives

Annette Lord
13/ 7/2005

AN EIGHT mile trek across London was the only way out for two high profile Heywood workers caught up in Thursday's bomb terror.

Key New Deal personnel David Rothwell and Vicki Devonport were on an underground train when the first bomb ripped through carriages at Liverpool Street station further down the line.

As the power failed, leaving them stuck in a packed train in a tunnel, weird noises and the lights failing unnerved them so much they decided to get off at the next stop.

But when they reached Sloane Square they were met with an emergency tannoy announcement telling people to evacuate the station immediately.

It was only when they got outside to be met by a cacophony of sirens and flashing lights that they realised something serious had happened.

"We started getting mobile phone messages saying a bomb had gone off asking if we were okay," said David, chairman of the New Heart for Heywood board. "Our instinct was to get out of London... so we just did it."

The pair were due to meet with people from a fellow New Deal for Communities partnership in West Ham but the meeting was abandoned and instead they headed for Euston.

"The worst thing is that we didn't know if we were walking into a danger area," said Vicki, New Heart for Heywood chief executive.

"Everyone became a suspect. I saw a woman pushing a pram and thought 'is that a baby in the pram or a bomb?'"

Rather than follow the most direct route, they took back streets trying to avoid 'target' buildings, tourist hotspots and tube stations for fear of further explosions. Text messages from NDC colleagues back in Heywood kept them up to date with what was happening.

But before they reached Euston, the second bomb exploded near nearby King's Cross, closing both stations. So they just kept walking and got almost as far as the North Circular Road before being able to get a taxi to Watford for a train home.

"I could've kissed Richard Branson when I got on that train," said David. "It was such a relief to finally be able to sit down and be on our way home.

"I woke up on Friday morning and thought it was fantastic to be in Heywood after the day we had."

By contrast, David and Vicki had witnessed the euphoric scenes in London the day before when the successful London Olympic big announcement was made and felt an instant shift from delight to disaster.

"We were in Trafalgar Square and it was one big party. It went from a party to deep mourning in 24 hours," said David.

They arrived at Watford wet through and exhausted after six hours of walking but recognised they were lucky not to have been at the heart of the first bomb.

They almost caught an earlier train and mistakenly caught a Circle line train taking them towards the site of the explosion.