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By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:37 PM on 15th January 2011
The lives of up to 50 bus passengers were unwittingly saved when the driver advised them to get off moments before the blast, the July 7 inquest heard.
George Psradakis’s No30 was stuck in gridlocked traffic in the aftermath of three Tube explosions.
He was forced to detour from his route from Marble Arch to Hackney Wick by police cordons, unaware what was causing the disruption.
Wreckage: The bomb devastation caused by the explosion on the No30 bus on July 7 at London’s Tavistock Square
At Tavistock Square, he followed protocol and told passengers that those whose destinations were nearby might be better off walking.
Just moments later the bus was blown up by 18-year-old suicide bomber Hasib Hussain .
Giving evidence at the inquest in the London High Court, Mr Psradakis said: ‘Lots of people got off the bus… I pulled away slowly, at crawling speed. When I was near (two) traffic officers I opened my window and called them.
‘I said, ‘what is the name of this place?’ They said Tavistock Square, so I thanked them and tried to call my garage and then – bang. The explosion.’
At first he thought he had hit something in the road, but he soon realised the full horror of what had happened.
‘The windscreen blew away, debris fell all over me,’ he said. ‘I was stunned, shocked. I touched my head and could only feel dust.’
Confused as he was, he dragged himself from his seat and off the bus, stepping into a road strewn with body parts.
Backpack bomber Hasib Hussain detonated his bomb on the No30 bus driven by George Psaradakis
Describing the horrendous carnage, he said: ‘I saw a leg stuck to the wall (of the building opposite). I was so shocked but I kept going to the back of the bus to explore, to see what happened, and everywhere I looked there were bodies, torsos, two heads, two piles of human flesh.
‘I kept looking if there is anybody I could help but again people were dismembered and all dying.’
He did his best to assist a badly injured passenger lying on his back, his face blackened, the inquest heard.
‘I tried to encourage him that everything will be okay,’ he said.
But the bus driver was then ushered away from the scene by a police officer, uninjured but suffering a pain in his back.
Recalling the emotion he felt as he gazed at the remains of his passengers, who a few minutes earlier had been talking and laughing, he said: ‘I never felt that way ever in my life…
‘Seeing my passengers in such a state really shocked me, I was overwhelmed.’
Mr Psaradakis could not recall the bomber Hussain getting on the bus as so many passengers had been flooding through the doors, unable to continue their journeys underground.
‘The bombs at the Tube stations had gone off so it was a confusion, everyone was confused,’ he said.
But he had no idea at that point what was causing the chaos, he added.
‘I tried to decipher what was happening but I couldn’t imagine we were at the epicentre of a terrorist attack,’ he said.
‘I was a million miles away from that thought.’ The hearing continues.
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