'Panic and danger amid mayhem'

Reuters photographer Peter Andrews saw the horror of the Baghdad bombs at close range.

He and his driver, Saad Shalash, were on foot 150 yards from the first explosion and had walked by the blast site minutes before.

After the first bomb went off they turned towards it and minutes later a second exploded just behind them. Andrews said: "It was chaos. We turned down a small side street. People were running and crying, carrying the wounded and trying to get away.

"As we reached the end of the street, the third blast sounded. I was thrown to the ground. Saad was hit in the arm by shrapnel. I had to scrape pieces of other people's flesh off his shirt.

"We ran in the other direction. I lost Saad, everyone was panicking. And then there was a fourth blast, all in the space of 10 or 15 minutes. Ambulances wailed. People ran backwards and forwards like crazy.

"I went to the scene and saw bodies piled onto a wooden cart, bloody wounds and people screaming.

"Some angry men came up to me with machine guns. They were shouting 'No America, no America' and threatened to kill me.

"Saad kissed one of the men on the cheeks, spoke to him in Arabic and calmed him down. Then we were able to get away."