I've since been back to the Admiral Duncan... I am not letting him win

25 years on, survivor tells how he lived through TWO disasters

- JACKIE ANNETT

Asked if he's the luckiest - or unluckiest - man in Britain, Gary Fellowes says he isn't sure.

He escaped death twice in the space of 18 months in two of the UK's worst disasters.

Gary was in a London pub when a bomb containing 1,500 nails went off, killing four people and injuring him and over 70 others.

And less than two years later, he survived the Hatfield train crash, even though he was standing in a buffet car where four people died.

His survival has undoubtedly taught him to be resilient and to live life to the full.

Now, 25 years after the bombing at the Admiral Duncan in Soho, Central London, Gary, 65, reflects on cheating death twice. He had just finished a pint of Fosters and was about to head to the bar when a friend introduced him to a stranger.

Deciding to stay and chat would save his life.

It was Friday, April 30, 1999 the first warm spring evening that year - and he'd gone to the Admiral Duncan, one of Soho's oldest gay pubs, after work to start the May Bank Holiday.

Gary had been drinking in the pub, his local, for 10 years. He loved that it was a 'safe space' for the gay community, while the interior always reminded him of a Cornish smugglers' pub.

As he leaned against a jukebox blaring out Millennium by Robbie Williams, a sudden flash filled the room as if a camera had gone off.

"I could hear what sounded like metal hitting the ceiling and walls," Gary told The Mirror ahead of the 25th anniversary today.

"I heard someone say 'Oh s**** and then everything stopped. The lights went off and it was pitch black. There was no screaming, just a deafening silence.

"I thought someone had poured beer on the jukebox which caused some kind of electrical reaction.