Scott Mackenzie was one of the thousands of police officers called out on 7/7 but it has haunted him ever since (Picture: Metro.co.uk/SWNS/Rex)

Of all the people Scott Mackenzie has ever met, there is one man whose face is forever etched in his mind. It comes to him constantly throughout his life.

Scott, 48, is a police officer with 18 years of service and was one of the thousands called out on 7/7 to respond to the terror attack that rocked London.

As the 14th anniversary approaches this Sunday, he has spoken for the first time about a connection he made with a stranger he desperately wants to track down.

Scott remembers word for word the call over his radio for ‘all units make your way there, there are walking wounded’.




He was due to be on patrol in central London on July 7, 2005, in case there were protests relating to a G8 summit that was taking place in Scotland that day.

But he, even after serving 12 years in the Army, was not prepared for what was about to happen.

Scott Mackenzie, pictured with his police officer father, at his passing out ceremony in 2001 (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

Scott says it would mean everything to him to be able to say sorry to the man, 14 years on (Picture: James Linsell-Clark/SWNS)

Scott said: ‘We’d arrived at Buckingham Gate near New Scotland Yard for breakfast. Our cereal was slightly late so we were the last ones in and we had literally just sat down when it came over the radio that there had been a power surge at Liverpool Street.’

As we now know, it was one of a series of blasts detonated by suicide bombers across London’s transport network, which killed 56 people, including the four terrorists.

Scott said: ‘I drove one of three vans in a police convoy but when we got there a female sergeant told us to go to Aldgate East.

‘That’s when it all started.’

Shehzad Tanweer, 22, had triggered a bomb at 8.50am at the back of the second carriage of an eastbound Circle Line train shortly after leaving Liverpool Street Station. Seven people were murdered.

Scott and his fellow officers had no idea what they were walking into, but the immediate first impression was chaos and the memory of it feels as current now as if it had happened yesterday.

He said: ‘When we first arrived there were hose pipes. I remember the hose pipes just absolutely everywhere.

‘It just appeared like utter carnage. We didn’t really know what we were doing.’

Police officer Scott McKenzie is still seeking closure almost 14 years on from the 7/7 bomings (Picture: James Linsell-Clark/SWNS)

The police officer was assigned to a triage bus outside Aldgate station where the walking wounded had been gathered (Picture: Rex)

Scott was tasked with collecting the names of injured people on a triage bus outside Aldgate East waiting to be seen by paramedics.

That’s when he saw the man whose face would haunt him to this day.

His voice breaking, Scott describes methodically making his way through the lower deck identifying everyone before going upstairs to repeat the process.

He said: ‘I was speaking to these two older people in a couple, a man and a woman, and they’re thanking me and I just looked over the top of their heads and I just saw this man.

‘He was sat in a grey suit, I think it was a grey suit and a white shirt, blue tie, dark hair. But he was covered in soot, head to toe, and was looking to his left out of the window.



‘I can’t even say he was crying or blubbering but you could just see this one tear rolling down his cheek. And I just looked at him and I filled up and I just cried myself. I just thought “I’m sorry”.

‘I’m sorry I couldn’t do any more.’

To this day Scott does not know why, but the sight of that man who had clearly come from close to the blast was too much for him to cope with.

Shehzad Tanweer triggered a bomb at the back of the second carriage of an eastbound Circle Line train shortly after leaving Liverpool Street Station (Picture: Rex)

The photo of Paul Dadge, right, helping injured tube passenger Davinia Douglass away from Edgware Road tube station became an iconic image of the 7/7 attacks (Picture: AP)

Scott turned around and left him – the only person whose name he did not make a note of – heading back to base before going to be with his family. And now he wants to find him.

He said: ‘I just came home and I was an emotional wreck. I see [visions of] this man so often. I’ll be driving down the road and think of him or sat in bed and it will come back to me.

‘I wanted to hug him, I wanted to hold him and say “mate, you’re going to be okay, it’s going to be alright”, but I couldn’t even take his name and address.

‘There are colleagues that were down on the platforms and they obviously would have seen worse, but that’s not my issue.

‘I’ve dealt with deceased people and serious accidents and God knows what.

‘But it’s just this man, he just sat in total silence when everyone else was chatting and he was just staring out of the window. He wasn’t even watching, he was just staring into the distance.


‘I felt helpless, like there was a barrier. Like a piece of glass saying “look at me, and I’m looking through and I can’t go through that glass.’

Scott with his passing out picture, one of just a handful he has kept from his time with the Met (Picture: Metro.co.uk)

He has carried the decision not to take that man’s details for the last 14 years and now feels like he needs to make amends.

He said: ‘I’ve been extremely rock bottom and not long ago was taken into hospital because I was very, very low. The last 13 months have been the worst 13 months of my life.

‘I lost my wife of 23 years who I have two daughters with, I did resort to alcohol and I became, within the family, not so much controlling, but I did everything.

‘That was my way of saying, “I do care. I want to help”. Looking back on it now, maybe it was my way of trying to make up for that man. Show that man that I can help.’

Scott has finally started receiving counselling after being diagnosed with PTSD in April.

The memories of the soot-covered man came out in his very first appointment and he hopes that – if he tracks him down – he will be able to get closure.

He continued: ‘I’m sorry I didn’t speak to him. I’d like to show him that I wasn’t scared and I wasn’t there thinking “I don’t know what I’m doing”.

‘It’s a case of, I was there to help you, I’m sorry I didn’t.’


Scott said: ‘Like 90% of officers, you just bury it. On to the next job.’

He said when he returned to base at the end of that very long shift there was no debrief from senior ranking officers, and no questions about how everyone was coping with what they had seen.

Scott remembers the day of the blasts as if it was yesterday (Picture: Rex)

Scott was called to Aldgate East station after a suicide bomb blast there which killed seven people (Picture: Rex)

When he first arrived Scott remembers fire engines and hose pipes ‘everywhere’ (Picture: Rex)

The morning after the terror attack, Scott bought every national newspaper but could not bring himself to read any of them straight away.

He said: ‘I remember I had them on my dining room table for a week. I finally plucked up the courage, I was on my own, to read them. And I just cried and cried and cried.

‘I was looking to see if there was a photograph of this man, but he wasn’t there.’

A few weeks ago Scott wrote about his experience on Facebook – the first time he’s disclosed the connection he made with the stranger to anyone other than his family.

After receiving widespread support among friends and colleagues, he decided the time was right to search for the stranger in earnest.

Struggling to keep his composure and pausing for a moment with tears in his eyes, Scott said: ‘I hope somebody is going to see, I know there’s no guarantee – I’m not holding anyone to account. But you never know.

‘All I did was take names and addresses, see this man, not speak to him and then I walked away. I had no further contact with victims.

‘I want to know – how did you cope?’

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