AN Arlesey man is being hailed a hero of the Egyptian bus crash that killed nine people. Survivors say company boss Phillip Palmer risked his life to help save many of the 29 injured from the burning wreckage of the coach before it exploded. Mr Palmer, 42

AN Arlesey man is being hailed a hero of the Egyptian bus crash that killed nine people.

Survivors say company boss Phillip Palmer risked his life to help save many of the 29 injured from the burning wreckage of the coach before it exploded.

Mr Palmer, 42, survived the disaster with his wife and mum-of-three Sandra, 47, who remains in a Cairo hospital recovering from a broken leg and four broken ribs. He told how he was travelling in the front of the coach when it rolled over on a desert road on Thursday morning as it travelled from the resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh to the Pyramids.

Talking from the hospital where he is staying at the bedside of his wife, Mr Palmer said: "As I carried one woman to safety the heat was grilling me.

"The coach was burning its whole length and all of a sudden it went boom.

"The driver had his toe down and it was as if he missed the bend. The tyres screeched, then we were tumbling and I though 'Oh God!'

"The bus filled with a sandstorm of grit. Everyone was screaming and glass smashed. It rolled over once or twice and bodies and luggage were thrown everywhere. It was like being in a cement mixer."

As the coach blazed the only escape was a 20ft drop down the wall of an old water channel.

Mr Palmer added: "I lowered Sandra as far as I could, that's when she broke her leg. I hung and dropped.

"As people jumped I heard bones breaking. One girl lay dead at the foot of the drop and I tried to help others down.

"I saw a Russian lady with a boy about 10 and helped carry her away. A Canadian girl had lost her arm so I ripped up a shirt and made a tourniquet.

"Other people could not get off the coach and were burned alive. It was like a war zone."

Sandra told reporters from her hospital bed: "Phillip was great. He helped the others and won't admit it, but he is a hero.