7/7 inquest: Plaistow victim Shahara Islam sat next to suicide bomber

A WOMAN who survived the 7/7 bus bombing has told how a friend, Plaistow’s Shahara Islam, persuaded her to get on the packed Number 30, only to be killed minutes later in the blast.

Emma Plunkett also revealed that Shahara sat directly across the bus aisle from suicide bomber Hasib Hussain.

She told the inquest today that she had suggested to Shahara that they wait until the queues for buses at London’s Euston station had died down.

But Ms Islam, 20, insisted they got on...and found herself sitting next to suicide bomber Hasib Hussain. She was one of 13 people killed when he detonated his device.

Hussain’s bomb was the fourth to go off on July 7 2005. Four suicide attackers killed 52 people on three London Underground trains and the bus.

Miss Plunkett said she was on her way to work in Islington, when she forced to get off the Tube at Euston due to the earlier bombings.

There she bumped into her friend and colleague Miss Islam, and asked her if she wanted to get a coffee before trying to board a bus because the station was “heaving”.

“She said ‘No, come on, let’s push,’” Miss Plunkett said. “I remember someone running past me and saying I was one of the lucky ones ”

Once on board, Miss Islam sat down directly across the aisle from Hussain, while Miss Plunkett took the window seat.

She told the inquest she could not remember the bomber and spent the moments before the blast in Tavistock Square talking to “Shaz” about what they thought had been a power surge on the Underground.

“We were saying there’s no way London could cope with the Olympic Games, that all it took was a power surge and this happens,” she said. “I didn’t remember anything of the explosion.

“One minute I was talking to Shaz and the next minute I was lying on the road.”

Miss Plunkett, landed half under a taxi, and said she remembered the driver, getting out to help her.