http://www.herts-essex-news.co.uk/news/mercury/hertfordshire_mercury/2006/08 /31/turkish%20bomb%20blast%20horror.lpf
Turkish bomb blast horror A FATHER and his 13-year-old daughter are flying home today (Thursday, 31 August) after being seriously injured in a terrorist bomb attack in Turkey. Kevin Smith, 41, and daughter Jennifer Cassidy-Smith, of Church Cottages in Essendon, were caught up in the wave of bombings by Kurdish extremists on Sunday night. They were on a last-minute holiday with neighbours Sarah Wilson, 37, and her sons, Jamie Pond, 8, and Adam Pond, 9. A quiet meal in a restaurant in the resort of Marmaris turned into a night of terror after the families boarded a minibus back to their hotel. Adam was sitting on Jennifer's knee when, at 11.55pm, their bus was ripped apart by a bomb planted under a seat. Miraculously, Adam suffered only burns, but Jennifer, a pupil at Bishop's Hatfield Girls School in Hatfield, had shrapnel wounds to her legs and third-degree burns to her face and hands. She was rushed to hospital for a five-hour operation. Her father, Kevin, a director of a jewellery company, has been in intensive care for five days. He has a broken leg and is being treated for burns and blast wounds. All five have spent the rest of their holiday in the same room at the Ahu Hetman Hospital in Marmaris. Yesterday (Wednesday, 30 August), the Mercury spoke to Jennifer's distraught grandfather, Tony Smith, from Stevenage. He said: "We're very worried about Jennifer. She has got extensive shrapnel wounds to her lower legs and burns to her hands. "Her hair caught alight, so she has facial burns and can't use her hands. She is very traumatised. "Sarah phoned me at 6am on Monday morning to tell me what happened. She wanted us to hear it first before it came on the news. "We've been terribly upset but there is not a lot you can do. We were told that there was no point in going there as they would be home soon. The Foreign Office have been very good and kept us up to date. "They'll be coming home tomorrow (Friday, 01 September), although we are still waiting for the Foreign Office to finalise all the details." Project manager Sarah, who kept Tony informed about the family's condition, suffered cuts and burns while son Jamie was left unscathed. Described the blast in graphic detail to a national newspaper, she said: "All of a sudden there was a flash and a bang. There was lots of smoke and screaming. I felt a whoosh of hot air around my ankles and a lot of discomfort. "Everybody was able to get off the bus. I got both my children out. Adam had burns but they were both alive. The restaurant owners rushed out and threw water over our burns." Neighbour Jill King told the Mercury: "It's such a shock to think of these two lovely families being in the middle of this horror." The families were among 10 British casualties and 11 Turks injured in the attack on the bus, which was parked outside a McDonald's restaurant. It was the first of five bombings across Turkey on Sunday and Monday which killed three and left dozens more injured. An explosion in a bin left another woman injured on Wednesday. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
