FOUR people from Barnet were caught up in the deadliest bomb to hit London's transport network on July 7, 2005, an inquest was told.

They were among 26 killed when Jermaine Lindsay detonated his home-made bomb on a Piccadilly Line train between Kings Cross and Russell Square stations.

This week the inquests into the deaths of the 52 people killed by the four bombers that day were opened at the Royal Courts of Justice.

It is believed Lindsay was forced to wait for the second train to come that morning as delays on the line meant every carriage was “packed”, Hugo Keith QC told the hearing.

He squeezed onto the front carriage of the train and the bomb detonated just seconds after it left the station.

Mihaela Otto, 46, a Romanian dental technician who lived with her family in Mill Hill, was blown from the carriage by the blast and found in the entrance to the eastbound tunnel by rescuers.

Rachelle Chung For Yuen, a married 27-year-old accountant from Mill Hill, who was born in Mauritius usually got the Northern Line directly to work from Mill Hill East.

It is not known why she got on the Piccadilly Line train that morning, but she was stood close to Lindsay when his device detonated.

Gamze Gazoral, 24, an actuary was originally from Turkey but was staying with her aunt and uncle in Totteridge to improve her English.

She had enrolled at a language school in Hammersmith and was on her way there when she was caught up in the blast.

James Mayes, 28, was an analyst working for the Healthcare Commission who grew up in Whetstone but lived in Islington when he died.

He had returned from a break in Prague the day before and was travelling to attend a work-related presentation when the bomb exploded.

Mr Keith told the hearing how rescuers that day suffered “appalling conditions” on the train, which was the worst hit, as the tunnel was the deepest affected and much narrower then the other.

He said: “Not only was the carriage dark, smoky and terribly hot, but it had been totally destroyed.

“Not only were the medics short of basic equipment, but the bodies of the dead and the large profusion of body parts were strewn across this part of the carriage.”