Sorrow and anger as families speak

Nick Allen

Weeping, and clutching a photograph of her beloved 26-year-old son Anthony, Marie Fatayi-Williams said her heart had been “maimed” as she continued the desperate search for him.

The young oil executive is feared to have been on the ill-fated Number 30 bus which exploded in Tavistock Square killing 13 people. At least 52 people died in last week’s bomb attacks.

Ms Fatayi-Williams, a Roman Catholic married to a Muslim, flew in from Nigeria and, near the scene of the explosion, made a powerful condemnation of the terrorists who carried out Thursday’s atrocity. “Neither the cause of God nor Allah was being served by this,” she said.

“Terrorism is not the way, it is not the way. What inspiration can senseless slaughter provide?

“Anthony is a Nigerian, born in London, who worked in London. He is a world citizen. Here today we have Christians, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Hindus, all of us united in love for Anthony.

“Hatred begets only hatred. It is time to stop this vicious cycle of killing.”

Ms Fatayi-Williams also expressed the frustration of some relatives at the speed of the police identification operation.

“This is now the fifth day, five days on, five days on, and we are waiting to know what happened to him. I, his mother, I need to know what happened to Anthony.”

Meanwhile the condition in hospital of one brave survivor of the attacks, who has become known as “the woman in the mask”, has improved.

Davinia Turrell, 24, was photographed clutching a surgical burns mask to her face as she stumbled from the carnage near Edgware Road tube station.

That picture of her, bloodied and barefoot, has become one of the enduring images of the atrocity. She is being treated at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for burns to the left side of her face.

Her sister Louise Wells, 29, said: “She is just thankful to be alive. She is doing really well, every day she is getting better and we can see the way forward. She has started to laugh and joke again.”

The husband of the first victim confirmed dead last night paid tribute to his wife, Susan Levy, a 53-year-old mother-of-two from Hertfordshire who is believed to have died in the Russell Square explosion.

“Susan was a devoted and much-loved wife and mother. We are all devastated by our loss,” Harry Levy said.