Scotland Yard officers tonight made their first arrest over yesterday's terror attacks in London, shortly after releasing CCTV images of four men wanted for questioning over the bungled bombings of a bus and three London Underground trains.
The man was arrested in a raid on a property in Stockwell, South London, near where another man was shot dead in a Tube station this morning.
The Metropolitan Police said that it was not yet clear whether the dead man was one of the four suspected bombers whose picture had been circulated and said the public should remain vigilant.
In a statement, the Met said: "This death, like all deaths related to police operations, is obviously a matter of deep regret. Nevertheless the man who was shot was under police observation because he had emerged from a house that was itself under observation because it was linked to the investigation of yesterday’s incidents.
"He was then followed by surveillance officers to the station. His clothing and his behaviour at the station added to their suspicions."
As the police investigation picked up pace and the net appeared to close on the bombing suspects, the Stockwell property was one of at least three raided by police across London. Another property was raided in Kilburn in West London.
Local witnesses said that the arrest was made in a block of flats and said the man taken away by police was black. His wife and young daughter were also detained, they added.
A man was also arrested under anti-terror legislation at Birmingham's Snow Hill station tonight and bomb disposal experts dealt with two suspect suitcases as the station was evacuated. It was not clear whether the arrest had any connection with the London bombings.
The day started with news of the death at Stockwell station. The man was shot five times after he vaulted a ticket barrier and ran on to a Northern Line Tube train just after 10am. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said. "As I understand the situation, the man was challenged and refused to obey police instructions."
Passengers described how a man of Asian appearance in a black baseball cap and blue padded coat leapt the barrier and scrambled down escalators onto the platform, stumbling through the open doors. One witness said that the man had wires trailing from his jacket and what appeared to be a bomb belt.
Police in flakjackets screamed at other passengers on the train to get down before an officer fired five shots at the suspect, who had fallen or tripped to the ground. He died instantly.
Hours later, in another incident linked to yesterday's attempted bombings, armed police, plain clothes officers and an ambulance descended on Harrow Road in West Kilburn, sealing off a section of the road near Portnall Road and searching a property. There were no arrests.
Deputy Commissioner Andy Hayman, who is leading the investigation into both yesterday's attack and the four suicide bombings of July 7 which killed more than 50 people, unveiled CCTV images at a press conference of the four men who are thought to have tried to detonate the bombs yesterday.
One man was pictured running out of Oval station at 12.34 pm wearing a dark T-shirt with the words New York in white lettering. The shirt was later found in Cowley Road in Brixton.
The second man shown was shown getting on the No 26 bus at 12.53 pm, wearing a grey T-shirt with a palm-tree design and a dark jacket and white baseball cap.
The third suspected bomber was photographed as he entered Westbourne Park station at 12.21pm. Mr Hayman said he travelled westbound on the Hammersmith and City line to Shepherd's Bush, where one of the devices went off. The man was wearing a dark shirt and trousers and a white vest.
Another suspect was pictured as he ran out of Warren Street station at 12.39pm after an aborted explosion on the Victoria Line. He was wearing dark clothing.
Mr Hayman said the public should not approach any of the suspects but should dial 999 if they see any of them. Anyone who thinks they may know any of the four men should ring the anti-terrorist hotline on 0800 789 321.
The fact that none of the four bombs exploded properly has given police clear forensic evidence and a massive head-start in their investigation compared to that into the July 7 bombings. Mr Hayman said that initial examination of the bombs showed that they used homemade explosives contained in dark rucksacks.
There has been no clear indication as to whether or how yesterday's attempted bombings might be connected to the July 7 attacks, which were blamed on three young men of Pakistani origin from Leeds and a Jamaican-born Briton. Those attacks have also been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The four bombers were clearly trying to copy the July 7 attacks in their choice of targets and modus operandi, but the fact that police are raiding addresses in London suggest that the terror cell responsible could be London-based.
Sir Ian today appealed to the public to remain calm and to ignore the inevitable rumours sweeping London. As he has done in successive public appearances, he stressed that the operation was not targeted against any specific community - and the police needed the help of all communities to find the bombers.
At Stockwell Tube this morning there were scenes of confusion as passengers, many in tears from what they had seen, were rapidly evacuated from the station. The Northern and Victoria lines, which both pass through the station, were immediately closed, as were bridges across the Thames.
Mark Whitby, a witness, said that the man was shot five times at close range after he had jumped on to a train.
He said that the train was standing in the station with its doors open when the Asian man ran on, pursued by three plain-clothes officers. He tripped and was also pushed to the floor and one of the officers shot him five times.
"It was no more than five yards away from where I was sitting . As the man got on the train I looked at his face. He looked from left to right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, like a cornered fox. He looked absolutely petrified.
"He sort of tripped but they were hotly pursuing him and couldn’t have been more than two or three feet behind him at this time He half-tripped, was half-pushed to the floor.
"The policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand, he held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him.
"He looked like a Pakistani but he had a baseball cap on, and quite a thickish coat. It was a coat like you would wear in winter, a sort of padded jacket. Maybe he might have had something concealed under there, I don’t know. But it looked out of place in the weather we’ve been having.
"He was quite large, big built, quite a sort of chubby guy."
In the Harrow Road incident, seven police vehicles and one ambulance arrived in the area around 2 o'clock this afternoon. Scotland Yard has confirmed that detectives investigating yesterday’s attempted bombings in London are searching an address on Harrow Road but said that no arrests have been made. But witnesses said that armed officers swooped on two people: a woman and a young, teenaged boy.
Ismael Aricioglu, who works in the Golden Fish Shop on Harrow Road, by the corner of Portnall Road, told Times Online that he saw plainclothed police pull up and shout at the woman and the boy, whom he described as 13 years old, as they walked along with an old woman.
"I saw it all," said Mr Aricioglu, "It was right outside my shop. There was an old woman, a 13 year-old-boy and another woman. They were walking on Harrow Road and then there were police in two cars that showed up."
"The police were with guns and they were wearing clothes like you and me. They stopped the people and said "Hands up! Hands up!" You know. Then they stop them, and they checked them and they put them in special white clothes."
"The old woman they kept separate and then they closed the road. They didn't let people come out. Then the ambulance came to give the old woman oxygen."
This evening, police were still searching a flat on Portnall Road, after firing six rounds of CS gas through the windows and sending a remote-controlled robot into the property.
