By Claire Heald BBC News

Inspector Stephen Mingay I had to turn around and leave those people. The hardest thing that I've ever had to do.

Paramedic Craig Cassidy If I take too much time with him, another patient or two patients could die.

Inspector Stephen Mingay felt the Piccadilly Line bomb go off under his feet as he stood on patrol at King's Cross.

He was the first person to reach the bombed carriage. Passengers remember him calling for calm, saying: "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm a police officer."

The most challenging job I've ever faced Listen to Insp Mingay

When I saw some of the walking wounded coming off the train, I started to get a good idea of what had happened.

I got to the carriage where the device had gone off and there was enough evidence that I knew what I was walking in to.

I had a seek-and-search lantern, and I quickly shone it around inside the carriage and saw what was there.

And I knew that my role as first officer on the scene was to get all the information of everything that I could see in that carriage back to the rescuers so they knew what was happening.

I called for quiet, bearing in mind what was in that carriage.

I explained to them who I was, that I had to go back and get help, that I couldn't delay my return, because to try and move any of those people would probably cause more serious injury.

There was no panic. Everyone did what I asked them to do and, in a way, they were heroes because without their co-operation, I couldn't have done my job.

Human reaction

I had to turn around and had to leave those people. That was the hardest thing that I've ever had to do.

I was on my own and I did what any other officer who was there would have done. We've all had the training to deal with major incidents. I did what I had to do, nothing more, nothing less.

What I did that day I know saved lives. I know the human reaction was to stay and help those who really desperately needed help.

July 7 heroes honoured

I know the time I would have spent helping those people could have meant others dying. I had to make that decision as first officer on the scene. I had to leave those people, so that more people were able to be saved.

I've (since) met a few of the people from that train. They're a great bunch. To see those people that I didn't think I'd see again, it's hard to describe the emotional feelings that I went through when I first met those people.

The bombers struck, you can't change that. Incidents like that change your life. I try to live life fuller, I suppose, and enjoy every moment that I can.

It's not just my life that's been affected, it's everyone's around me - my family's lives because they know what I've been through. It's the same for everybody else who was there on the train.

I'm just hoping that with the anniversary out of the way we can all get on with enjoying our lives.

Paramedic Craig Cassidy was answering a routine call when he noticed crowds spilling from Aldgate. He was diverted and became one of the first medics to enter the tunnel.

I'd already decided he was beyond help Listen to Craig Cassidy

It was very dark, but you could just about see a train down there. We followed the firemen down.

It was very calm. It was a combination of the people being in shock. There was no screaming or shouting but people talking to each other.

Everyone was helping each other walk down the track. These were mainly walking wounded. They had bad cuts, injuries from glass and burns.

It was the end of the second carriage where the explosion had taken place.

It was not nice, but because it was calm, because it wasn't daylight, a lot of things were in darkness so you couldn't get the full picture of how bad it could be inside the train.

'Quick decision'

There were two scenes inside. The best thing to do was split up, so (my colleague) Steve took one set and I was able to go down to the other end.

There was a person on their back who was mainly cuts, lacerations, burns. She was deeply unconscious, so became my priority.

I had two people to my right - a male and a female - both of whom had traumatic amputations of the legs. They were conscious, calm. They were looking at me and talking to me, so I knew they were OK for the moment.

The bombed Tube train at Aldgate

There was a male in front of us whose injuries I'd seen when I first got in the train, who'd been moving at that point. But I'd already decided he was beyond help.

If he'd been the only patient there and we'd had a full medical team, I still think he could not have been saved.

It's a hard decision, but a quick decision, because if I take too much time with him, another patient or two patients could die, so you have your priorities.

It was certainly the most challenging job I've ever faced, the most casualties I've ever dealt with and some of the most traumatic injuries I've ever seen.

'One at a time'

I felt I was down there for 20 minutes. Apparently I was down there for about an hour and 10.

I felt very calm the whole time. It was only after I came up afterwards, all of a sudden my body hasn't got anything to do and it's dealing with what it's just seen.

Then I realised I was shaking all over. According to my colleagues I was pure white, very wide-eyed.

But at the time, I was very calm, it was one thing at a time, one person at a time, do this, do that.