The hours after the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes were full of confusion and panic but witnesses were certain about one thing: the armed officers had not identified themselves.

Witnesses had sat in shock as they saw two armed men fire nine times at a fellow commuter as he was held down in his seat.

Some witnesses were allowed to flee the scene and were interviewed by police later after they had gone to a public house. As one of the witnesses watched television reports of the shooting on the pub’s television she was warned by an officer that she had to be careful about what she said “or it will be just one more copper with a family losing his job or worse”.

Since the shooting in July 2005 fifteen officers, including Commander Cressida Dick, have been interviewed under caution for offences including murder, gross negligence, manslaughter, misconduct in a public office and trying to pervert the course of justice.

Ms Dick, who has since been promoted to Deputy Assistant Commissioner, officers with the codenames Trojan 80 and 84, who are firearms advisers, and Silver Command are still facing possible disciplinary action but no one has been charged.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission report, published yesterday, notes that not one of the 17 witnesses on the Northern Line train could recall hearing armed police identify themselves as they rushed into the carriage. However, eight police officers who were there said that they remembered either shouting out who they were or hearing others do so.

They have all been interviewed under caution “concerning allegations that they have conspired to pervert the course of justice”, the IPCC report says. The 168-page report details for the first time what the passengers and police officers who fired the fatal shots did and saw on the Northern Line train on July 22, 2005. Not all of the accounts match.

The report describes how two officers grabbed Mr de Menezes, while another two fired nine shots at him from close range, hitting him in the head, neck and shoulder. One of the bullets missed and another jammed.

Mr de Menezes was shot after being wrongly identified as Hussein Osman, a terrorist, and was followed into Stockwell Tube station by several surveillance officers.

The two officers who shot him, referred to as Charlie 2 and Charlie 12, had been firearms officers for 16 years and 14 years respectively. As they reached the train carriage the suspect had already been grabbed by a surveillance officer, known as Ivor, who pinned his arms to his side and pushed him on to a seat.

Another officer, identified as Delta 9, controlled the lower half of Mr de Menezes’s body “and tried to get to his hands to stop him detonating a device”. The report makes it very clear that they all believed that they were dealing with a suicide bomber.

Charlie 2 ran forward, the report says, and reached over the top of the surveillance officer while shouting “armed police”. He held his gun to Mr de Menezes’s head and fired.

“Charlie 2 was aware that Charlie 12 was also firing. Charlie 2 cleared a blockage in his gun and continued firing until he was certain that the threat had been eliminated.”

The report adds: “Charlie 2 was convinced Mr de Menezes was a suicide bomber about to detonate a bomb. He states that he honestly believed that unless he acted immediately everyone present was about to die.

“He formed the opinion that the only option was to shoot the man in the head and kill him instantly to prevent any detonation.”

The report says that one witness on the train, known as YD, heard a lot of shouting from a group of men at the door of the carriage and heard either “this is it” or “there he is”.

“She then recalls seeing a man sitting two seats away with a gun to his neck. The gun was pointed directly into the joint between the man’s neck and head. The man holding the gun was standing over the man holding the gun at arm’s length.

“She then saw flashes and heard quiet popping noises. She was not able to identify any of the men as police officers. Neither did she hear the word ‘police’ shouted.”

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