Police 'Right to shoot'

23 July 2005 10:33

Home Secretary Charles Clarke last night backed the Metropolitan Police in shooting dead a man on the tube as the faces of four suspected suicide bombers were revealed.

Speaking exclusively to the EDP, Mr Clarke warned the robust approach must continue as the Met released CCTV images of the men who tried to bring more death and carnage to London on Thursday .

The Muslim Council of Britain yesterday expressed concern over the apparent 'shoot to kill' policy after reports the suspect was shot five times while on the floor at Stockwell tube station in South London during a pursuit by plain-clothes officers.

But Mr Clarke told of his pride in the police's actions and, just moments before meeting the EDP, had telephoned commissioner Sir Ian Blair to pass his congratulations to all officers involved, which include former Norfolk Chief Constable Andy Hayman who is heading the hunt for the bombers.

Mr Clarke said: “I am absolutely proud of the way the police negotiated a really tough situation and stopped this threat to our security.

“Dozens of people have been killed in recent weeks and faced with such adversity the police have to make tough calls - I support them fully in this.”

The Home Secretary added that his office had not issued any specific authority to officers to shoot to kill and said all decision were taken at an operational level.

But he said: “The police's first priority has to be to protect the public and to do that they have had to adopt a robust approach.”

Mr Clarke said the current climate should not disrupt the 80-day Commons recess and refused to comment on what measures are being taken to step-up his personal security.

He was speaking following a visit to the NELM Neighbourhood Centre where he presented a Honda Accord to wardens working in the North Earlham, Larkman and Marlpit area.

The presentation was a low-key affair which took place behind a tightly monitored security cordon. Mr Clarke's security staff paid particular attention to bags left unattended.

In a further development in London, one man was arrested last night in connection with the police investigation in Stockwell, south London, close to where the fatal shooting happened.

The capital was on a state of alert and parts of the transport system were brought to a shuddering halt by security scares throughout the day.

Police think the four men pictured on CCTV footage were responsible for rucksack bombs found on underground trains at Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush stations and on a number 26 bus in Shoreditch on Thursday.

None of them detonated properly and there were no serious injuries but the strategy for the attacks was an almost exact replica of the July 7 attacks which killed 56.

Detectives hope for a massive public response to the release of the CCTV images.

The first showed a man in a black sweater with "New York' on it running away from the Northern Line at Oval station at 12.34pm on Thursday. The sweater was later found abandoned in Cowley Road, Brixton.

A second image showed a man on the top deck of the number 26 bus.

He was wearing a grey t-shirt with a palm tree design and a dark jacket with a white baseball cap.

Another image showed a suspect leaving Warren Street at 12.39pm yesterday and the fourth was of a man at Westbourne Park station at 12.21pm.

Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman warned members of the public not to approach the men under any circumstances and to ring 999.

The shooting came as a statement posted today on an Islamic website in the name of an al Qaida-linked group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, claimed responsibility.

They also claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings. The statement's authenticity could not be immediately verified.

An initial examination of the devices found on Thursday showed they contained constituents which appear similar to the explosives found in a bath at a property in West Yorkshire which was raided after the July 7 attacks.

The fatal shooting at Stockwell happened at 10am when armed plain clothes police officers shot a man they believe was an accomplice of the bombers as he tried to board a train at the underground station.

It was understood police had put a house nearby under surveillance and the man came out of there.

Officers followed him, hoping he would lead them to the bombers, but when he went into the station they told him to stop.

The Asian man then bolted down an escalator and tried to get on a train before he was, according to witnesses, shot five times in the head by an officer with an automatic pistol.

Outside Stockwell station in London, train passenger Mark Whitby, an eyewitness to the shooting, said: "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.

"They unloaded five shots into him. I saw it. He's dead, five shots, he's dead."

He said the man looked Pakistani but he had a baseball cap on and a thickish coat.

"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.'

Other passengers were distraught, he added.

"It was just mayhem. I've never seen people move so fast in all my life, people running in all directions, looks of horror on their faces and screaming.

"Lots of people were sort of crouched down trying to run, trying to protect their heads, worried about flying bullets.'

He said that as he was helping an elderly woman off the train, another 10 to 15 police officers with pistols and sub-machine guns ran on.

Train drivers union Aslef said that at one point during the chaos the train driver himself had a gun held to his head by police.

Steve Grant, the union's London officer, said police had since apologised.

As with all police shootings the Independent Police Complaints Commission is expected to launch an investigation into the death of the man at Stockwell.

Experts said the method used by the police officers had parallels with that used by Israeli security forces and US troops in Iraq to deal with suicide bombers.

They tend not to shoot suspects in the body because of the risk of detonating explosives strapped to their waist.

But the Metropolitan Police confirmed that it was their officers and not any military unit who shot the man. They are believed to have been from the specialist SO19 police firearms unit.

Although the dead man was not one of the four suspected bombers Sir Ian said the shooting was "directly linked' to anti-terror operations.

Police also launched a dramatic armed raid in Portnall Road, West Kilburn, which they believe may have been connected to one of the bombers.

Witnesses reported seeing a robot sent into the garden before officers fired six shots into the windows and basement of the house from a building across the street and used CS gas.

Other people were reportedly surrounded by officers with machine guns. Noone was arrested.

Venetia Elphick, 40, said her house was used by armed police as a base.

She said: "They said I had to go to the back of the house then they opened the window and stood at the window with machine guns.

"Then they told me they were going to release some type of gas. I heard some gassy noise shooting out of the window. I was really scared.'

Mohammed Kalam, 29, who was on a nearby bus, said he saw a young boy and a woman who both had their hands on the wall of an internet cafe.

He said: "The boy was wearing a red t-shirt but police then made him put on a white outfit. I heard police say, 'put your hands against the wall. Don't panic.'

Last night, a man was arrested under anti-terror laws at Snow Hill rail station in Birmingham. Two suitcases were also being examined by explosives officers, British Transport Police said.

The station was closed at 5.55pm and local offices were also evacuated, but there was no immediate information linking the arrest to the London attacks.

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