Shamim Ahmed and Mark Hammond, both who were enjoying their usual routine of their lunch break on November 29th, Friday, , were left in a state of horror as they witnessed the terror attack at London Bridge.

Ahmed and Hammond, friends of more than five years – who are both tube drivers for Transport for London (TfL) – sat down to describe the emotions they felt which they had never gone through before in their lives; as the events at London Bridge unfolded.

“As soon as I heard the gunshots, which at the time sounded like a rapid explosion, I assumed the very worst,” Ahmed, 42, conveyed. “I didn’t know what the right thing to do was at the time, so Mark and I began running in the same direction as those who were running from behind us.”

Hammond, 39, admitted he would have been left in a state of shock and would have frozen where he was standing if Ahmed wasn’t with him. Hammond revealed he froze for a brief moment as the shots were heard along with screams which proceeded, and he only moved once Ahmed pulled his wrist in the direction in which they ran towards.

“Honestly, it is a little embarrassing to realise I froze. In that very moment, I physically felt like I couldn’t move my legs in those few seconds when we heard the gunshots,” Hammond admitted. “Shamim pulled me towards the direction in which he saw everyone else running and I just started running with very little knowledge on what was even going on – everything pretty much feels like a blur when the attack took place.”

Upon making their way back to London Bridge station, it appeared most people in the station had already been made aware of the events which took place outside. “Shock could be seen on other people’s faces,” Ahmed said. “It could quite easily be seen that others were aware of what had happened. Some were just standing still on their phone frantically scrolling through, as I did so myself, and people seemed very understandably uncomfortable to even leave the station.”

“Some stayed for as long as 15-20 minutes before plucking up the courage to leave the station,” Hammond added. “I was relieved to get into the station as there were police squandered all over the place, both nearby and even inside the station, so I felt safe in these surroundings, and I’d imagine others felt that way too which is why they waited a considerable amount of time before leaving the station.”

“I went quite a bit over my usual time for my lunch break,” Hammond said. “Don’t worry, I didn’t get a telling off from my manager! He understood I was feeling very overwhelmed with what I had just seen and gave me all the time I needed to pull myself together before returning to my working duties.”