Aldgate bomb fire crew ‘swore at paramedic’, 7/7 inquest hears

Andrew Cumner was in the first ambulance to arrive on the scene of the terrorist bombing at Aldgate Tube station on July 7, 2005.

A group of firefighters told him he needed to take wounded survivors, including Emma Brown, who had severe shrapnel wounds to her stomach, to hospital for treatment.

But he told them he could not because as "incident officer" he had to stay to assess how many more ambulances were needed, the inquest for the 52 victims of the attacks heard.

The firefighters responded with "hostility and panic", the hearing was told. Mr Cumner described the clash with fire crews in debrief notes. He wrote: "Firefighters insisting that we take a number of casualties at the station entrance.

"I declined, explaining that we were the first ambulance on and could not convey any patients but had to evaluate the situation, and I had to take on the role of incident officer until relieved.

"This was met by some hostility and panic from the firefighters, with comments such as give me the f***ing keys and I will drive the f***ing ambulance'."

Mr Cumner added in brackets "not helpful".

Suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer detonated his device on the second carriage of an eastbound Circle Line train at Aldgate at about 8.50am.

Mr Cumner, who in 2005 had 22 years' experience as a paramedic with London Ambulance Service, and his colleague Andrea Ray arrived at Aldgate about 20 minutes later.

He told the hearing: "They weren't sure of what the role of the first ambulance on the scene was."

Ben Hay, counsel to the inquests, asked Mr Cumner: "Did anyone expressly ever say to you in those first eight minutes or so, we've got very seriously critically injured people on the train, we need paramedics down there'? The paramedic replied: "No."

The inquest continues.