The policeman who was the first to intervene at the Maelbeek metro station when the bombs went off on 22 March 2016 was among the witnesses who spoke on Friday at the Brussels bombing trial.
That testimony was a very difficult one. The policeman repeatedly broke down in tears, and the room was extremely quiet as he was spoke.
"I had just dropped my son off at school when I got the news about the attack in Brussels Airport and my superior asked me to go there,” the police officer said. “My colleague and I were in Troon Street when the emergency call came in about an explosion in Maelbeek.
" Since we were 200 metres away, we immediately went there. In Wetstraat, there was no car in sight," he continued. "We parked near the Thon hotel, at the entrance to the metro station, and I went down into the station. I could hardly see anything. The station was full of smoke.”
'I knew I couldn’t help her'
The scene was one of devastation. “A catering establishment in the station was completely destroyed," the policeman recalled. " I heard cries for help from the mezzanine. I brought out several people I found there, then went down to the platform.”
At that point, the man briefly interrupted his testimony, overcome with emotion.
“The first thing I saw was a woman with a severely fractured skull, who had been thrown against the ceiling of the station by the explosion,” he recalled. "She was still conscious and was trying to crawl away. I knew I couldn’t help her and focused on my task, making an initial assessment of the situation.
"I saw the first subway car, then the second. The roof of that second car was gone. Because of the explosion when entering the station, it had been torn off, stuck to the ceiling, and folded all the way back...”
