'People flew from their seats': Passengers describe how crash unfolded

Passengers onboard two trains that collided near Bedford on Friday afternoon have told the BBC of the panic and injuries they witnessed in the aftermath of the crash.

One person died and “a number of others” were injured in the incident, according to the British Transport Police.

The East of England Ambulance Service said nearly 90 people had been injured, over 30 of them seriously.

Alex Pope/BBC

Teresa Itabor, from Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, was on the 16:57 at Wellingborough heading to the capital to celebrate her birthday.

She says she had her eyes closed and headphones in when the collision happened.

“We left Bedford station and there was a massive bang… I didn’t know what was going on; my head hit the seat in front of me,” she said.

“I opened my eyes and that’s when I saw people on the floor with blood everywhere.”

The carriage doors had jammed and would not open, she added.

Passenger Dr Peter Knapp told the BBC he was travelling in the “front carriage of the train that collided into another one”.

“When I got up, I saw all of the chairs everywhere. It felt like I’d been in a bomb explosion.

“When I got up, I saw people’s bloodied faces and people’s legs looked broken and there was smoke everywhere”, he said.

Speaking from the side of the road, Knapp said the police were taking passenger’s details while some were taken to hospital. “Some people are spitting out blood”, he said.

Brett Byatt, another passenger onboard, said: “I knew something was up because the train never slows down from Bedford to Luton, and I felt it break.”

He said initially the train had slowed gradually. “Then it was like a boom, smash, and everyone that was sat down went flying into one another.”

“There was a woman in front of me that had completely snapped her leg, and there was a woman behind her, they were sort of on top of each other, she couldn’t move because of her back.

“There was a guy further down the carriage that couldn’t move his neck, he was laid on the floor and people were holding him still”.

Holly Nichols/BBC

Another passenger, Shola Mene, said the collision “was like a big bang”.

“Then people flew from their seats, the seats were pulling, and then someone just flew across and hit my husband in the face.

“There was a lot of blood”, she said. “A lot of people had facial injuries.”