'People tried to stop him but I don't think they did'

Eyewitness: Kate Reid (22), from Aughnacliffe, Co Longford, was on the Northern Line carriage in which a detonator exploded

Eyewitness: Kate Reid (22), from Aughnacliffe, Co Longford, was on the Northern Line carriage in which a detonator exploded. She tells what happened.

'I had taken the day off work and was heading to Canary Wharf to meet a friend. From my home, I took the Victoria Line to Stockwell, then changed to the Northern Line.

"Somewhere between Stockwell and Oval stations, I heard a big bang. It sounded like a balloon, but was much louder. It was more of a pop than a bang, really.

"Across from where I was sitting, there was a man with his bag hanging off. It was a normal kind of sports bag, nothing remarkable.

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"There was a bit of smoke and the ground was covered with brown material, not quite polystyrene, more like wall insulation.

"As the smoke cleared, I realised this was the same man who had boarded the train with me at Stockwell and that it was his bag that had popped.

"He was North African or Middle Eastern, dark but not black, aged between 18 and 20.

"The man froze as everyone looked at him. He looked terrified and panicked. One of the passengers was abusing him, saying 'what the f*** are you doing'? again and again. Once I realised what had happened, and so had everyone else, we got up and started moving through the door into the next carriage. Someone pulled the emergency cord and the train came to a halt at the next station, Oval.

"The minute the doors opened, the young man got off the train and sprinted through the station. People tried to stop him but I don't think they did.

"The rest of us crowded on to the platform. Then, when we realised the bag was still in the train, we moved up the stairs into the station.

"There, an off-duty policeman took our statements. After all that, I needed a drink, so some of us who had been on the train went to the pub, but not before I rang mammy to say I was alright.

"It's a few hours now since the incident, and I'm quite shaken, to be honest. But I don't think it will really hit until I go home. I'm lucky that it was nothing like July 7th."

In conversation with Paul Cullen