Terrified factory workers crawled to safety
Bleeding, bandaged and suffering from shock, the survivors of today’s devastating blast in Glasgow told of their harrowing experiences.
Daniel Gilmore, a worker in the plastics factory, spoke of his fear as the explosion tore a hole through the brickwork.
With his head heavily bandaged and blood spattered across his face and neck, Mr Gilmore said: “All of a sudden there was a wee hole in the wall appeared where the explosion had been.
“I just tried to grab hold of Jimmy and we just sort of held hands and moved our weight towards the hole in the wall,” he told BBC News 24.
He said they managed to crawl out of the hole and over rubble to safety.
Mr Gilmore said he thought most of those trapped in the wreckage were working in offices four storeys above.
David Andrews, 50, was also working inside the factory when the blast took place.
He managed to escape uninjured, but said he feared for the lives of his colleagues still trapped inside.
Mr Andrews said: “I was working in the other side of the building. It was mostly office workers in the bit that came down.
“I was working when I heard an almighty bang and I ran out. I couldn’t se anything for dust.
“I was trying to help pull people from the rubble. All my colleagues were lying on the ground with cuts and bruises to their heads and broken arms.
“The whole lot just came down on top of them.”
Mr Andrews said he believed the explosion might have been connected with gas ovens in the coating department of the factory.
He believed the 14 people working in the fabrication department had survived.
He also thought the six workers from the coating unit had escaped. He said he believed it was mostly office staff who had been injured.
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