Huge explosion rocks the building (From The Northern Echo)

Huge explosion rocks the building

3:28pm Monday 5th October 2009 in

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08:35 - It is my morning off so I and my colleague are sitting up on our camp beds in the sports hall as our rooms are now taken up by our replacements.

We are discussing what we are going to do on our morning off and of the twelve rockets shot towards us a few nights before.

Suddenly a huge explosion rocks the entire building..... Something caught my eye above me, as I look up, I can see that the windows and frames are falling in directly onto my colleague below. I shout out and duck out of the way. As soon as the dust disperses I look around to see that he is fine and everyone has hit the floor and is now scrambling to put their body armour and helmet on.

The explosion was so loud and sounded so close, we thought it was a rocket that had hit just outside the sports hall. As we waited on the floor our Sergeant Major ran in and shouted One Zero Alpha, get your equipment we are moving out, the front gate has been hit by a suicide bomber.

My team move out and approach the area nearly 200m away from the sports hall, the first thing I notice is the car alarms going off then plumbs of smoke billowing into the air.

There is debris everywhere the gates are destroyed and there are bodies lying on the floor, we split up Part of the team heads through the gate to provide a security perimeter, the other team heads to help casualties that have severe injuries and to clear the female block that has been hit by the blast wave causing much damage to the structure.

The scene outside of the main gates was one of pure carnage, all that was left of the vehicle that had been packed with explosives was the engine block and a huge crater. Huge concrete blocks used as blast barriers had been simply vaporised or hurled tens of meters in all directions, causing much destruction and casualties. Civilians, Afghan and ISAF soldiers had been caught up in the blast.

After the security cordon had been put in and the female block cleared out an American Sergeant Major that worked directly for COM ISAF asked me to smash doors down in another block as he had no contact with his chiefs of staff. Luckily they had not been near the explosion and were all fine, but defiantly needed new doors on all their rooms!

The rest of the day we spent securing the area and the transport element of the company ferried casualties to and from the nearby military aid stations and hospitals. After the adrenaline had worn off we all felt absolutely shattered for the rest of the evening until we finally got a debriefing from the company commander thanking us for all our efforts and explaining that the Taliban had claimed it was them that had attacked us, however we were not the target but the American Embassy approximately 200 yards up the road.