‘Aunt Edna! Aunt Edna!’ Queenie yelled, frantically waving her arms in the air. Relief flooded through her as she spotted Edna among the crowd being herded like cattle down the steps.

All of a sudden, Queenie heard a commotion behind her. She turned to see a scuffle, and as she turned back, she saw a woman fall down the last few steps with a child in her arms. An elderly man then fell on top of her and mayhem followed.

Queenie screamed as people, including her aunt, tumbled like dominoes on top of each other. ‘Aunt Edna,’ she cried. ‘Aunt Edna.’

‘Do something, someone. Stop the crowds coming,’ shrieked Molly.

But there was nothing anybody could do. The crowds just kept coming, then falling. Queenie sobbed. People were squashed, many dying in front of her very eyes, and Aunt Edna was at the bottom of the pile.

Overcome by the horror of knowing her sister was one of the fallen, Molly Wade fainted.

‘Mum,’ Queenie screamed. ‘Mum, wake up!’

Queenie stood inside the station, one of the many who had loved ones missing. Her mum was in a terrible state. She couldn’t stop trembling, neither could she speak.

Apparently, a single off-duty police officer had halted the chaos. He’d heard all the screaming and shouting and had stopped anybody else from entering the station.

There were lots of rumours flying around. A man behind Queenie was telling everyone that it wasn’t bombs being dropped by the Germans that had caused the chaos. It was the new anti-aircraft rockets being launched for our own protection and the government were to blame as they should have pre-warned us what was going on.

Another rumour said the stampede was caused by a pickpocket, but Queenie didn’t care what started it. All she could think about was her aunt. She could only hope and pray that Aunt Edna’s size might have saved her life.

After the many injured were taken away, bodies were pulled from the scene. Tears flowed freely. There was a dead woman, still holding her dead baby in her arms. So many looked dead, lots of them children. It was awful. Heartbreaking. It was Aunt Edna’s birthday too, thought Queenie.

As the bodies were taken outside by the men, Queenie felt sick. ‘Talk to me, Mum. Please,’ urged Queenie.

But Molly couldn’t talk. She was too traumatized.

As a gap to the left of the stairs opened up, a policeman urged the women and children to form an orderly queue and leave the station. As she filed past the lifeless bodies, Queenie glanced to the right but couldn’t spot Aunt Edna. One of the first to fall, she was too near the bottom of the heap to be visible.

Once outside the station, Queenie gulped in the fresh air, then watched in horror as each body that was brought out had a bucket of cold water thrown over it, to see if it would trigger any signs of life. One man sat up, but the majority just lay there lifeless, the cold water dripping off them.