The brave taxi driver who survived a terror attack outside busy hospital reportedly told those who came to his aid: 'Someone has blown me up'.
CCTV footage shows the cab pull up outside Liverpool Women's Hospital on Sunday morning before it explodes and is then engulfed in flames.
Cabbie David Perry managed to get out of the car before the fire started.
And the 45-year-old was then helped by brave security guard Darren Knowles, who is said to have put his own safety at risk to rush to the taxi driver's aid.
Following Sunday's terror attack, police have named 32-year-old Iraqi born terrorist Emad Al Swealman as the man they believe was the passenger who it is reported to have ignited his home-made bomb.
Tonight Darren, 50, from Cheshire, told the Mirror: "“Everyone is calling me a hero but at the end of the day I was just doing my job.”
Darren was on duty at Liverpool Women’s Hospital when the bomber struck at 10.59am on Remembrance Sunday.
He was standing alongside his own car which was parked just yards from the main entrance.
“It all happened in a flash. I was just pumping my tyre up on my car” he said.
“I saw the taxi pull up, as they do, because it is outside the main entrance.
“I heard a loud bang and at first I thought it was mechanical failure in the taxi. I thought the engine had caught fire.
“But then I saw the taxi driver run out. He was panicking and screaming ‘someone has blown me up’.
“He was trying to tell us, ‘there is a passenger, there is a passenger’.
“I was trying to say to him, ‘is he still in there?’ and he was saying ‘he has tried to blow me up, he has tried to blow me up’. David was just so disorientated and confused.”
Darren said the driver had blood pouring from a wound on his left ear and a shrapnel injury in the back of his neck, which was also bleeding badly.
He added: “I just grabbed him and tried to get him to safety as quickly as possible because I had a feeling something else was going to go off.
“My first priority was stopping the taxi driver going back to the car, because he had his phone and other things in it and he wanted to get them out, but I took him to the nearest nurse to get medical attention.
“I did not think about myself I was just thinking of getting the taxi driver to safety before anything else went up.
“He was screaming, panicking, saying ‘I want my wife’.
“We were just saying ‘calm down, let’s just see to you’.
“There was blood pumping from his left ear all down the side of his face.
He had shrapnel in the back of neck and it was just pouring with blood.”
He added: “I was saying, ‘come on, come with me, we’ll get you sorted’ and I handed him over to a nurse.
“He went into the staff entrance and sat down there and that was the last I saw of him.”
Darren, who works as an agency security guard, added: “He was just in a state of emotional shock go be honest. He was confused about what had happened.
“God bless the guy. I just wish him a speedy recovery after what he has been through.”
He did not look into the car to see the body of Al Swealman, who died in the inferno.
But he added: “The first thing that came to my mind was ‘terror attack’. We couldn’t say the words because we did not want to scare people.”
He said he was “quite calm” immediately after the blast but 30 minutes later the reality of what had happened dawned on him.
“My hands were shaking when I realised how close I could have been to being blown up. But you don’t think, you just do.”
It was only the sixth time Darren, who lives with his partner and their two youngest children, had been on duty at the hospital.
He finished at midnight and was back in work the following morning for a shift at another site on Merseyside.
And he was due back at the hospital on Wednesday night for a night shift.
He smiled: “At the end of the day I prefer to be busy than just dwelling on things.
“The kids say they are proud of of me but I have told them I was just doing my job.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up as a token of thanks for Darren and three other men who tried to help at the scene, Liam Spencer, Richie Kawar and Will Cowan.
A friend of dad of two Mr Kawar, who tried to extinguish the flames of the burning car, said of the his bravery: “I think Rich just thought it was faulty car catching fire but a member of the public shouted ‘there’s someone in the back of the taxi’.
“Rich thought because it was outside the women’s hospital, it must be a pregnant woman or a child trapped in the back of that car, so he wanted to save her and put the flames out.
“He said it was too hot to get close to and he could hear pops and bangs but still used a full foam extinguisher to try and put it out. It made no difference though.
“The car was a right mess and it set fire to another car belonging to Will, who is another security guard, that’s a right off too.
“I think both lads are already back at work.”
Caroline Hewitt, who set up the fund raising page, wrote: “These men Darren Knowles, Liam Spencer, Richie Kawar and Will Cowan, all risked their lives on Sunday with their brave quick thinking actions.
“I have set up a gofundme page to raise money to be shared out among all four to give them for their bravery.
“A man in the white shirt is stood right next to the car Richie Kawar, with a fire extinguisher trying to put it out in desperation putting his own life at risk.
“Will Cowan also put his life at risk to help others and I have also been told that his car caught fire and his insurance won’t pay out as it’s terror related and he’s not covered.”
Sign up for the CheshireLive newsletter
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoZXNoaXJlLWxpdmUuY28udWsvbmV3cy9jaGVzdGVyLWNoZXNoaXJlLW5ld3MvY2hlc2hpcmUtaGVyby1saXZlcnBvb2wtaG9zcGl0YWwtYm9tYmluZy0yMjE5NzYzMdIBcGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoZXNoaXJlLWxpdmUuY28udWsvbmV3cy9jaGVzdGVyLWNoZXNoaXJlLW5ld3MvY2hlc2hpcmUtaGVyby1saXZlcnBvb2wtaG9zcGl0YWwtYm9tYmluZy0yMjE5NzYzMS5hbXA?oc=5
2021-11-17 21:08:00Z
CBMibGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoZXNoaXJlLWxpdmUuY28udWsvbmV3cy9jaGVzdGVyLWNoZXNoaXJlLW5ld3MvY2hlc2hpcmUtaGVyby1saXZlcnBvb2wtaG9zcGl0YWwtYm9tYmluZy0yMjE5NzYzMdIBcGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmNoZXNoaXJlLWxpdmUuY28udWsvbmV3cy9jaGVzdGVyLWNoZXNoaXJlLW5ld3MvY2hlc2hpcmUtaGVyby1saXZlcnBvb2wtaG9zcGl0YWwtYm9tYmluZy0yMjE5NzYzMS5hbXA
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar