SHOCKED: Sam FranceMUM-of-three Sam France has spoken of her brother's amazing escape from death after being only feet away from one of the bombs that ripped through commuter trains in Madrid on Thursday.

Mrs France, 39, from Lower Fyfield, has been able to speak to her brother Philip Harvey, 42, in the Madrid hospital where he underwent emergency surgery for shrapnel wounds and burns.

Mr Harvey lives on the outskirts of the Spanish capital city where he teaches English to Spanish businessmen and women.

He was travelling to work by train when a huge bomb ripped through his carriage, killing and maiming other passengers.

In total ten bombs went off on packed rush hour trains, killing 200.

Mr Harvey was one of about a dozen Britons injured in the atrocity that investigators believe was the work of either the Basque separatist group ETA or of the Middle East terrorist group al-Qa'eda.

Mrs France, who is an assistant at the Bluebell Nursery School at Lockeridge, said her brother commuted to work by train every day but she was unaware of the Thursday morning terrorist attack.

She said: "I did not know there had been a bomb blast in Spain because I did not have the news on. With three children all wanting to watch their own programmes there is never any chance of hearing the news in the mornings."

The first she knew of the tragedy was when her husband Victor, who was away on a business trip, phoned her at work to say there had been a terrorist atrocity in Madrid.

Mrs France called her mother, Jennie Seller, who lives in Surrey and asked her to check that Philip was all right.

She said: "My mother called his girlfriend Carmen at their home in Madrid. She had not gone to work because she had heard about the bombs on the news. Carmen phoned his work only to be told he had not arrived."

Mr Harvey was able to use his mobile phone to call Carmen to tell her that despite being injured he was okay and was in hospital.

He suffered abdominal injuries caused by flying shrapnel and facial burns.

Mrs France said: "Although he was hurt he was still unbelievably lucky because he was only six feet away from where the bomb in his carriage went off."

Mr Harvey, who has lived in Madrid for ten years, was one of the luckier casualties who was picked up almost immediately by the Spanish paramedics who were stretched to their limits.

He was taken to one of the city's hospitals for emergency surgery.

Mrs France was able to ring him in hospital on Saturday when he told her of his lucky escape.

Mrs France said: "He said on Saturday that he hoped to be out of hospital in four days but I don't think it will be that quick because he has developed a chest infection and is on antibiotics."

She said she did not believe the terrorist attack or his own injuries would make her brother reconsider living in the Spanish city. "That is where he has built his life and he is settled there," she said.

Mrs France, who has twin five-year-old daughters and a son aged eight, is planning to fly to Madrid to see her brother as soon as he is allowed home from hospital. Her father and younger brother flew to his bedside at the weekend.