Video footage of one of the alleged 21/7 bombers fleeing London dressed as a Muslim woman was played in court today.

Images of a tall figure dressed from head to toe in a black burqa -- the full covering with veiled slits for eyes worn by some devout Muslim women -- were said to show Yassin Omar the day after he allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a Tube train at Warren Street underground station in 2005.

In the footage, taken from Digbeth coach station in Birmingham on July 22, the figure walks holding a white handbag among unconcerned commuters before sitting on a bench. At the time, Mr Omar was wanted by the enormous police manhunt launched in the hours after a series of failed attacks on London's transport network.

The prosecution claims that Mr Omar, who is 6ft 2in tall, reached Birmingham in disguise after leaving Golders Green coach station in North London earlier that day, where CCTV cameras also recorded images of him dressed in a burka. He was seen boarding the 6.20pm National Express service for Birmingham with the help of a female companion.

Alleged 21/7 bomber was moments away from being shot

Armed policeman had finger on trigger and was only moments away from shooting Yassin Omar

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At Digbeth coach station, Mr Omar arrived alone and waited until he was picked up by a Red Nissan Sunny, Woolwich Crown Court heard. Five days later he was arrested by armed police in a semi-detached house on Heybarnes Road, standing in a bath.

An officer identified as PC 7512 told the trial yesterday that he struggled violently with Mr Omar when he found the suspect in the bathroom wearing a rucksack which the policeman believed contained a bomb.

"To this day I still don’t know how I didn’t shoot him," said PC 7512, who told the court he had pressed his sub-machine gun against Mr Omar's neck and decided to open fire.

Today the court heard about Mr Omar's journey back to London after his early-morning arrest. He was driven to Paddington Green police station, where terror suspects are held in the capital, wearing a protective suit and plastic bags on his hands and feet to preserve forensic evidence.

According to the arresting officer, Detective Constable David Hillier of Scotland Yard's Counter Terrorism Command, Mr Omar admitted being on the Underground during the attacks of July 21 but insisted he had no idea what was going to happen.

Mr Hillier's evidence related that he asked Mr Omar if there was still any danger to the public, to which the suspect replied:

"No, I did not know what I was doing... I was at the station when the bomb scare went off. I went to Victoria then to another station on the Victoria line, I do not know the name."

According to the detective, Mr Omar then added: "I was on the Tube at the time of the explosions. I did not know it was going to go off. I did not want to hurt anyone." Mr Omar also reportedly said that he was given the rucksack that contained explosives in an alleyway and that he had no idea what he was carrying.

Later, in custody at Paddington Green, the court was told that Mr Omar said: "I was going to go home. I wanted to get engaged so I wanted my house to be painted and everything. They said: ’Take this, go home and we have a surprise for you’."

According to the police, Mr Omar said he was talking to other passengers when he heard a "pop" in his bag, the court heard: "I panicked, I did not know what I had in the bag." He told detectives that he considered turning himself in but: "I thought, I’m just going to get blamed".

Peter Carter, QC, defending Mr Omar, said his client had in fact told Mr Hillier in the car that "I did know what I was doing" and "I knew it was going to go off and I did not want to hurt anyone." But during cross-exmination Mr Hillier denied this was the case, as did Detective Constable Alistair Woods, who drove the police car. Both officers also denied threatening with Mr Omar.

Mr Omar, Muktah Said Ibrahim, 29, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, Adel Yahya, 24, Hussein Osman, 28, and Ramzi Mohammed, 25, deny charges of conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life.

The trial continues.

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