The Missing

Shaun Connolly, Irish Examiner Political Staff

The process is as delicate as it is sickening, the damaged Tube tunnel 18 metres under the road is reluctant to give up its dead. They thought it was just another mundane journey to the office, or to meet loved ones instead it was the journey to their graves.

Some members of the rescue teams were close to breakdown as they emerged from their grim task, shocked and haunted by what they had witnessed in the darkness below. "I don't know what heaven looks like, but I have just seen hell," one traumatised young policeman said as he staggered from the scenes of devastation on the Piccadilly line between Russell Square and King's Cross where at least 21 people are known to have died.