ONE minute, bus passenger Antonio Cancellara was opening a magazine.

The next, he was immobile, unable to respond as he heard his name being called, the 7/7 bombings inquest heard.

The commuter had boarded the number 30 bus with his girlfriend after the pair were evacuated from a Tube train following what they were told was a power surge on the line.

In fact, that was the detonation of a bomb at Edgware Road.

Diverted from their normal route to work, they found seats on the upper deck of the bus, which was making little progress due to police blocks in the road.

They decided to stay on the bus despite the delays and were still seated when Hasib Hussain detonated his bomb at Tavistock Square.

The inquest heard how between 30 and 50 other passengers had got off the bus moments earlier, because of hold-ups caused by the police operation.

“I don’t remember flipping the page of my magazine, all I remember was I heard my name called,” Mr Cancellara recalled in a written statement read out to the inquest.

“I remember hearing it but I was unable to move. Tania (my girlfriend) believes I was thrown some 20 metres from the rear.”

His girlfriend Tania Calabrese added in her written statement: “I remember an impact from behind. I was thrown forward and shaken really violently.

“I thought we had been involved in a car accident. My face was bleeding.”

She described the nightmarish scenes that confronted her after the explosion.

“I turned and looked behind and saw the roof was missing,” she said.

“The floor beneath me had collapsed and I could see bodies hanging off the side of the bus.

“There were bodies and human remains scattered over large areas of the bus.”

In panic, she screamed her boyfriend’s name. She could not at first find him but then located him among the wreckage, helped him up and the two walked to safety.

The inquest also heard how up to 50 people disembarked from the overcrowded bus blown up in the July 7 attacks just moments before the devastating explosion tore through it.

Unaware of what was disrupting the transport network that morning and forcing legions of would-be Tube passengers to travel overground, the bus driver George Psaradakis had made a diversion.

Following company protocol, he made an announcement, advising those whose destinations were nearby that they might be better off walking.

Between 30 and 50 hopped off – unaware that their driver’s advice may have saved their lives.

Passenger Tad Gryglewicz recalled an “almighty explosion’’ on the number 30 bus.

He told the inquest: “Straightaway it was just like my mind was in overdrive, and I could see that this bus was targeted by terrorists, and I’m just on this very bus.”

The Polish-born electrical engineer added: “It was shock and disbelief – in microseconds the bus has changed beyond recognition.”