I stood among the dead after 7/7 Tube bombs and told them: ‘We’re going to get you back to your loved ones’
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IT is almost 20 years since Clive Holland stood among the victims of Britain’s first Islamist suicide attack, and the memory still reduces the former soldier to tears. He was one of Scotland Yard’s detectives investigating the 7/7 bombings that brought carnage to London on July 7, 2005, leaving 52 commuters dead and more than 700 injured.
![[New pictures show the carnage inside the tube carriages following the 7/7 bombings in 2005]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/clive-holland-images-supplied-via-961246876.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
Three bombs exploded on the Underground and a fourth blew up a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square. One went off in the first carriage of Piccadilly Line train 311 near Russell Square station, killing 27 passengers including teenage suicide bomber Germaine Lindsay.
![[Anti-terrorist squad investigator Clive Holland found himself alone in the carriage among the bodies]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/clive-holland-77-bombings-feature-961271510.png?strip=all&w=960)
Hours later, detective constable and anti-terrorist squad investigator Clive found himself alone in the carriage among the bodies. In a four-part BBC documentary starting tomorrow, the retired officer says: “Going down to the Underground I wasn’t nervous because I’d done 22 years in the Army, so I’ve seen quite a lot.
![[Jenny Nicholson was among the 52 killed in the blasts on 7/7]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/jenny-nicholson-victim-london-7-961129779.jpg?strip=all&w=364)
“The initial first couple of carriages was fine, there was a lot of property left behind. And then we got to the main carriage.”. Choking back tears, he remembers: “There was a lot of bodies inside, just blown to pieces.”. Remarkably the train lights were still working, but the investigators needed more illumination, so Clive was left alone with the dead while his colleagues collected more lights.
![[Jenny's mum Julie said she had a panic attack when she attempted to get on a tube after the bombings]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/06-01-2025-fragments-evidence-961109426.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
He says: “So I was just chatting to them, telling them, ‘We’re here now. Everything is going to be OK. “‘I’m really sorry what has happened but we’re going to get you back to your loved ones as quickly as we can, and we’ll treat you with as much dignity as possible’.
![[Jenny was among those killed in the blast in a carriage near Edgware Road station]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/emergency-services-arrive-edgware-road-956296400.jpg?strip=all&w=960)
