Role of emergency services in July 7 blasts challenged

THE family of a woman killed in the July 7 attacksin London questioned whether the emergency services could have saved her after learning she survived for 45 minutes after the blast.

For five years, relatives assumed Behnaz Mozakka, 47, died instantly when suicide bomber Jermaine Lindsay, 19, blew himself up on a Tube train between King’s Cross and Russell Square.

But a fortnight ago they discovered she was in fact conscious after the explosion and even spoke to a police officer, a pre-inquest hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in central London was told.

Seventeen of the 52 people killed in the 2005 bombings did not die instantly, a document submitted to the hearing revealed.

Mozakka, from Finchley, north London, was on her way to work at Great Ormond Street Hospital when she became one of Lindsay’s 26 victims.

Gareth Patterson, representing her relatives and three other bereaved families, argued the inquests for those killed should investigate whether the emergency services could have saved more lives.

Mozakka’s family is “entitled” to an inquiry into why she apparently failed to receive “timely treatment”, he said.

“They want to know what happened to her in the crucial minutes after the explosion.” Patterson added: “There is reason to believe there may have been failings.”

The coroner, Justice Hallett, is holding a three-day legal hearing to decide what form the inquests — expected to start in October — should take.

Another lawyer argued the British authorities breached their obligations to protect their citizens by failing to act on information they had about the bombers before the attacks.

Christopher Coltart, representing seven of the bereaved families, said the inquests should be a wide-ranging investigation of whether the atrocities could have been avoided.

He said: “If, we submit, appropriate, available and proportionate action had been taken at an earlier stage, it may have been possible that the events of July 7 could have been avoided.”

Another key issue the coroner must consider is whether the inquests for the four suicide bombers should be combined with those for the 52 innocent victims.