"'I had to accept that terrorism had arrived at Glasgow airport'"

Thursday, July 5, 2007

'I had to accept that terrorism had arrived at Glasgow airport' 
United Kingdom - The Guardian


The two police officers who were first on the scene of the failed Glasgow
airport car bombing spoke publicly for the first time today about how they
grappled with the two suspected terrorists.

One of the officers, Constable Stewart Ferguson, told how he hosed down one
of the suspects who was on fire after a burning Jeep was rammed into one of
the airport's buildings.

PC Ferguson, 40, said his colleague, Sergeant Torquil Campbell, had then
squirted CS spray at the man's eyes to try and disorientate him.

The two terror suspects were held at the airport last Saturday after the
Jeep drove over the forecourt and rammed into the side of the building.

One of the suspects, said to be the driver, suffered 90% burns and remains
in a critical condition in hospital. Sources have told the Guardian that the
man - seen dousing himself in petrol during the attack - was Lebanese.

PC Ferguson, who is based in Paisley, said he had not initially known that
the burning man was a suspect.

"It never entered my consciousness to walk away from the guy - I would have
been failing in my duty," he said. "One of the primary duties of a police
officer is to preserve life, and it doesn't matter whose life that is."

PC Ferguson was off duty and had only been at the airport to pick up his
parents, who were due to return from a holiday in Jersey.

The father of two, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, was alerted to the attack as
he chatted with Sgt Campbell. He said he heard a commotion a few hundred
yards away on the airport's forecourt.

"Some people were running towards our direction and shouting that there had
been some kind of accident at the front of the building," he added.

"Sgt Campbell took off towards the scene - it seemed to me to be a natural
reaction to follow him. I followed him to the scene and saw the car.

"My first memory is not of the car on fire, it's of Sgt Campbell being
assaulted by a male in the roadway. I thought then it was a road rage-type
incident. But it quickly dawned on me that this was no angry motorist - this
was something completely different."

He said he then became aware of airport personnel trying to assist Sgt
Campbell by trying to subdue the man before he looked into the vehicle and
saw the second man.

"He was well ablaze - clothing, hair, skin - and from the attitude that he
was in, lying on his back, there was a kind of resignation about him," he
said. "I was free to act so, knowing where the fire extinguishers were in
the building, I grabbed one."

The alleged passenger in the Jeep has been named by sources as Bilal
Abdulla, a 27-year-old Iraqi doctor.

Sgt Campbell, 49, said one of the suspects tried to aggressively block his
path and stop him getting to the Jeep. He said the suspect then tried to get
into the hatch at the back of the Jeep.

"It struck me when the second male came towards me on fire that this was
something different, something out of the ordinary, and that this was indeed
a terrorist attack," he said.

"It was hard to comprehend, but I just had to accept the fact that terrorism
had arrived at Glasgow airport ... I'll never forget that burning man
running towards me, lashing out."

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