Greater Dandenong mayor Maria Sampey, left, with her personal assistant Luisa Kimball.By Sarah Schwager
GREATER Dandenong mayor Maria Sampey has spoken about her close brush with death on a London station platform.
Cr Sampey, who arrived safely back in Australia last week, was at Paddington Station on 21 July when a suicide bomber attempted to blow himself up.
“I was on the platform,” Cr Sampey said. “The chap was only about seven metres from me when he tried to detonate the bomb.
“There was screaming and surging towards the exit,” she said.
“He tried to detonate the bomb a couple of times but it didn’t go off.”
Cr Sampey was in London as part of a delegation with councillors John Kelly and Paul Donovan.
She said the first bombings happened three days after they had arrived in London, forcing them to evacuate their hotel.
She said the second bomb scare had come as a big shock.
“People standing behind him (the suicide bomber) could see and screamed,” she said.
“They were shouting ‘bomb’. Your heart’s racing. Part of you doesn’t believe it’s happening. It’s so surreal.”
Cr Sampey said the panic in the Underground had been very scary with everyone being pushed around.
“If you fell over, you’d be trampled on,” she said.
“Everything happened too quickly. I really think the hand of God was on me and everyone else on that platform.”
She said once she got onto the street everything was at a standstill but she had managed to get on a bus.
“While I was sitting on the bus I got a text message from my daughter asking: ‘Are you okay?’
“I sort of broke down to tell the truth.
“ I felt so alone.”
Cr Sampey said she could not believe Australia had got the news so quickly, especially as it happened close to midnight our time.
She said it had been a horrendous experience and she was so glad to be back home with her family.
“I’m just grateful I’m in Australia,” she said.
“I am grateful the City of Greater Dandenong is such a great place to live. There are so many nationalities here, but there is peace and harmony here in the city. Everyone respects one another.”
