A WOMAN from Wellingtonbridge was lucky to escape with her life after she came face-to-face with the man at the centre of the London Underground attack that occurred at the weekend.

Commenting to the media Eva Murphy, who is originally from Ballylannon, Wellingtonbridge, said she thought she was going to be killed in the incident which occurred in Leytonstone Tube station on Saturday night.

News reports said the man at the centre of the attack shouted ‘this is for Syria’ as he wielded a knife.

Speaking on national radio Ms. Murphy said: “We just came face-to-face with him, and the four of us were there in front of him.”

She went on to say that the man attacked a woman who had just walked by her in the tube station.

“He was just a second away from stabbing her in the neck, he went to stab her in the neck,” said Ms. Murphy.

“We didn’t realise what he was doing until he produced the knife.”

Ms. Murphy, who is a teacher by profession, was in around the Oxford Square area of the city to view the Christmas lights.

When she entered the tube station with her friends, at first, there was nothing amiss but then they saw a person on the ground with lots of blood around.

“People just started to panic,” she said.

“We genuinely thought one of us was going to die because he was in an enclosed area,” she added.

She also said that at first she and her friends thought the person on the ground had just fallen down but when they saw a pool of blood around him they knew it was more serious than that.

“It looked like half the blood had left his body,” she said.

Other people were tending to the stricken man so Ms. Murphy and her group made their way to the exit, however, they were warned back because the attacker was waiting in the direction they were going.

“We were standing just feet away from his knife but it just didn’t register what was happening,” she said.

It was at that point that the man attempted to stab another woman in the neck.

Ms. Murphy, who is a teacher by profession, said she was shocked by what happened but that her and her friends were ok after their ordeal.

British police said they are treating the incident as a terrorist attack. A 29 year-old man was arrested following the attack.