The Brazilian electrician mistaken for a suicide bomber by arned police at a London Tube station last week was shot no less than eight times, it emerged today.
Witnesses to the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, who was chased by police into Stockwell Tube on Friday morning, spoke of hearing around five shots as he was cornered in a Northern Line train.
But an inquest into his death, which opened earlier today at Southwark Coroner's Court and was immediately adjourned, heard that he was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder. The details were confirmed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which today opened a formal investigation into the killing.
Scotland Yard today named two of the four men they are hunting for last week's abortive bombings of three Tube trains and a bus in the capital, as armed officers raided a flat in North London used by at least one of the suspected bombers.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch, said that three of the four bombers entered Stockwell station just before 12.25pm on Thursday, two weeks to the day after suicide bombers killed 52 rush hour commuters in four co-ordinated blasts.
One of the group boarded a Northern Line train and tried to set off a bomb between Stockwell and Oval station, where he was chased from the station "by extraordinarily brave members of the public who tried to detain him," Mr Clarke told a press conference.
The second, named as Muktar Said-Ibrahim or Muktar Mohammed-Said, 27, travelled to the City, where at 12.53pm he took a No 26 bus towards Bethnal Green.
"He was carrying a grey and black rucksack and sat on a seat towards the back of the bus with the bag next to him," Mr Clarke said. "He too tried to set off a bomb."
Mr Said-Ibrahim was associated with, and has recently visited a flat at 58 Curtis House, Ladderswood Way, in Friern Barnet, North London. Police raided that flat today and two men have been arrested in the vicinity, bringing the number of people held to five.
The third suspect, named as Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, travelled north on the Victoria Line, where he also tried unsuccessfully to detonate a bomb shortly before Warren Street station.
The fourth suspected bomber entered the Underground at Westbourne Park and tried to blow up a Hammersmith and City line train heading towards Shepherd's Bush before escaping through a window of the train.
"He then made his way along the track for about two to three hundred yards, before climbing down into back gardens and making good his escape," Mr Clarke said. "He went along McFarlane Road, past the BBC building in Wood Lane, and was last seen running under the A40."
He added: "I would appeal to anyone who has information about where these men currently are should immediately call 999 for an emergency urgent police response. The public should not approach them."
Mr Clarke also appealed to any shopkeepers who may have sold five or more 6.25-litre plastic food containers, the white-lidded Delta 6250, which is made in India and sold in only 100 UK shops. They are marked "Family Containers, Delta, Superior Quality."
"My appeal is to any shop keepers and shop workers who may have sold five or more of these identical food containers in recent months, perhaps to the same customer," he said.
"Do you remember selling a number of these white-topped containers at the same time? Do you remember selling them to men you perhaps recognise from the CCTV images we have released?"
News of the latest developments in the investigation into last week's abortive bombings came as Tony Blair apologised for the death of Senhor de Menezes, a 27-year-old electrician who had been on his way from his flat in Tulse Hill to fix an alarm in Willesden Green, northwest London, when he was accosted by armed officers.
One of the main question that his inquest - and the IPCC inquiry - will have to answer is why he decided to run away from police, vaulting the ticket barrier and running down to the platform.
Asked about the killing at a press conference today, the Prime Minister said: "We are all desperately sorry for the death of an innocent person and I understand entirely the feelings of the young man's family, but we also have to understand the police are doing their job in very, very difficult circumstances and I think it's important that we give them every support."
Hundreds of extra armed police were deployed on the streets of London today as Scotland Yard stepped up what has become its biggest ever manhunt.
The discovery of a bag in a park in Wormwood Scrubs, West London, containing the same type of explosives used in Thursday's attacks means that Scotland Yard are now chasing as many as five suspected bombers.
Armed officers put on a show of force outside Aldgate Tube station this morning as it reopened for the first time since a suicide bomber blew himself up and killed seven others on the Circle Line on July 7.
Scotland Yard's biggest fear is that the men who failed in last Thursday's attacks have access to more explosives and will regroup and launch another attack on London's transport system. Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said last night that investigators were "racing against time" to track down the bombers.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was to meet his Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim, later this afternoon to discuss the Stockwell shooting. "The Brazilian Government and the public are shocked and perplexed that a peaceful and innocent person should have been killed," Senhor Amorim said.
Despite calls for an inquiry into Scotland Yard’s tactics after the killing, Sir Ian has insisted that shoot-to-kill orders designed to deal with suicide bombers will stay in force.
Sir Ian said that his force took full responsibility for the death of Senhor de Menezes, but said that there would be no change of orders to his 2,000 armed officers. Politicians and police chiefs believe that the risk of more mass killings is graver than another blunder.
Three men are being questioned at the high-security Paddington Green police station, two of whom were arrested on Friday and another arrested on the street in Tulse Hill, South London, on Saturday.
Detectives have established links between the fugitives and the four July 7 terrorists. The two groups are believed to have met at an adventure holiday centre in North Wales. There are also telephone links between the two cells.
