Two shops in Leeds, one selling clothes and the other computers, were being searched today by anti-terror police investigating the July 7 suicide bomb attacks on London.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police and colleagues from the West Yorkshire force carried out co-ordinated raids on idooPC, the adjacent Plum Tree shop and the flat above at just after midnight.

Leeds was home to three of the four suicide bombers who carried out the attacks on three Tube trains and a double-decker bus, killing 52 commuters.

The shops are in the Beeston area of the city, about 100 yards from the home of Aldgate bomber Shehzad Tanweer, 22. Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, the ringleader of the cell, had worked at a Beeston primary school.

It was the first development of note in the inquiry for several weeks - although it is still far from clear whether the police investigating the 7/7 killings are any closer to arresting the men's accomplices.

Neighbours said the two shops are owned and run by a man of Pakistani origin and his white wife who live together in a flat above. They have not been seen since Tuesday. Both shops were closed today.

One nearby shop owner said: "The police arrived on Tuesday at about 5pm and there were quite a few of them. They were all wearing the usual white suits. They were here until earlier today."

The man said he knew the computer shop owner only as Imran. He said he had lived there for about three years, adding: "A nicer bloke you could not wish to meet."

Another local shopkeeper, who also did not wish to be named, said the man had visited Pakistan about a year ago.

He said that he had since become confrontational on Islamic issues, adding: "I decided it was best just to leave him alone."

It was unclear if property had been seized and a Scotland Yard spokesman said no arrests had been made.

Nobody has been charged in connection with the bombings and Met police have voiced fears that the investigation has been superceded by the inquiry into the failed copycat blasts on July 21 and the subsequent shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian electrician mistaken for a suicide bomber.

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