'I didn't know where to run'

Hen Knafo: went to aid of injured

The bomb ripped through the No 14 Bus just after shoe shop worker Hagit Stein had alighted.

"I didn't know where to go, where to run," she said, shaking and weeping. "I don't believe I'm so lucky."

Another eyewitness, Zelig Feiner, told the BBC: "I was on Jaffa Street, on the other side, but I could see all the parts flying into the air.

"We heard the explosion and we knew it was an attack. We ran as quickly as we could to help people.

"I've seen many attacks in the past three years, but to be there so soon after the attack - it was terrible to see over 65 people asking and screaming for help, some of them in critical condition.

"But also to see the bodies, so many of them lying there, saying nothing, it just tells you everything.

"I must say that although people think we get used to it, you can't get used to seeing such scenes - every time, over and over, it is hard to see such things."

The blast blew out the windows and ripped a large hole out of its side, killing or injuring scores of people.

"I saw dead people," said Shirli Rafael, a 25-year-old municipal worker. "Severed hands and fingers lay at my feet. I saw a lot of women covered with blood - their skin was scorched.

"There was a headless body near the door."

Ms Rafael had been around the corner when the bomb went off and she rushed back:

"I ran to the scene and simply froze. My legs couldn't move."

Bloodsoaked

Amid the horror, bank security guard Chen Knafo managed to summon up the strength to go the aid of the injured.

The bus was packed when it exploded

"I saw a girl, about 15 or 16, who was blown from the bus," he said.

"I took her aside and gave her first aid until a medic came."

Mr Knafo's white shirt was soaked with blood.

Another, anonymous witness, speaking in broken English, was choking with emotion as he spoke.

"What I see, nobody came to see - I don't know if someone came to see what we see," he said.

"I hear the bomb. I come all time the first and I see many. And I see fire. And in the fire I see one girl, and one girl I see. The second is dead..."