Lankan woman escapes London blast

Ramani Kavanagh, 40, formerly of Kandy stepped off a train at Edgware Road Tube station, London, seconds before it was blasted by a bomb leaving several dead and many injured.

Maths teacher Kavanagh of Darvell Drive, Chesham, Bucks, was on her way to nearby North Westminster Community School when the bomb went off in a packed tube train.

The mother-of-two, who moved to the UK 20 years ago and has relatives in Sri Lanka, New Zealand and Australia, said she had just got off the train and was going up the steps at the station when there was a massive explosion. "Debris was flying everywhere. My instinct was just to get out of there as fast as I could," she said.

"Suddenly, I saw a boy I teach and he was trying to go back to see what had happened. I got hold of him and dragged him out of the station," Kavanagh said.

"I was shaking. It was terrifying. I think I had a miraculous escape. I feel so sorry for the people who are now dead or badly hurt. Normally, I would be out of the station much earlier but this time I had gone in a bit later because it was our school sports day. I saw on the news that the train carriage I left was one of the worst hit," she said.