The parents of a man who allegedly tried to blow himself up on a bus in Bethnal Green last week spoke today of their shock at seeing his picture on the television news.

The parents of Muktar Said-Ibrahim appealed to the public to help Scotland Yard track their son down.

The family made their appeal after police found bomb-making materials at a flat Said-Ibrahim shares with Yasin Hassan Omar, another suspect in last week's bungled London bombings. Police sources said that materials had been taken away from the flat at Curtis House, a 13-storey block on a council estate in Bounds Green, for forensic examination.

Said-Ibrahim came to Britain as a young boy from Eritrea and grew up in Stanmore, northwest London. He was granted a full British passport last September.

In a statement released through Harrow Police, his family said: "We are a peaceful family, having lived in this country since 1990. We were shocked when we saw Muktar’s picture in the national news.

"We immediately attended the police station and made statements to the police. We would suggest that anyone with information contacts the police."

They said that Said-Ibrahim left home in 1994, adding: "He is 27 years of age. He lives alone elsewhere. He is not a close family member. He has not visited here for many months. The family wish to express their shock regarding recent events and in no way condone any acts of terrorism."

Superintendent Richard Freeman, the acting Borough Commander of Harrow Police, said the family were co-operating fully with police and had been the first people to contact them to identify Said-Ibrahim. "They are really, really co-operating with all the police in relation to this," he said.

The Home Office today revealed that both Said-Ibrahim and Omar had lived in Britain since the early 1990s. Omar, the registered tenant of the Bounds Green flat since 1999, arrived in Britain from Eritrea in 1992 at the age of 11 as the dependent of an asylum-seeker and received indefinite leave to remain five years ago.

The two men were thought to have walked into Stockwell Tube station in South London last Thursday lunchtime with another suspected bomber, who has not been named.

Omar headed north on the Victoria Line but his rucksack bomb failed to detonate properly as the train pulled into Warren Street Tube. Muktar was said to have taken a train to Bank station in the city, where he took a No 26 bus heading east into Bethnal Green, where his bomb, too, failed to detonate. The third man tried to blow himself up on a Northern Line train heading into Oval station.

A fourth suspected bomber, who has not been named, joined the Tube in West London and tried to blow up a train near Shepherd's Bush. A fifth identical bomb was found abandoned in a park in West London on Saturday.

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