Armed police officers stand guard yesterday as a property is searched in west London in connection with the attempted bombings on the transport system in London. Police shot dead a man at Stockwell station yesterday as they hunted bombers who struck London's transport network on Thursday. - Reuters
LONDON, (Reuters):
POLICE SHOT dead a man at a London Underground rail station yesterday, one day after a failed bomb attack on the capital. The police also issued an urgent appeal to trace four men they were hunting.
One man was arrested in connection with Thursday's explosions late yesterday near Stockwell Underground station, where the man was shot earlier, police said.
They declined to comment on whether the man detained was one of the four.
The attempted attack on three Under-ground trains and a bus unsettled residents in London as it came 14 days after suicide attacks killed 52 rush-hour commuters.
It was not clear whether the man shot dead at Stockwell Tube station in south London was suspected of involvement in the failed bomb attacks or had been mistaken for someone else.
Police issued photos of the four suspects from closed-circuit television cameras on London's transport network and asked for help in tracing them in connection with the attacks that echoed but failed to repeat the July 7 bombings.
SEEKING PUBLIC'S ASSISTANCE
"We are urgently seeking the public's assistance. It is time for the public to do what they are very good at, which is support investigations," Andy Hayman, chief of Specialist Operations for London police told a news conference.
Witnesses spoke of panic as a man of south Asian appearance wearing a heavy jacket vaulted over barriers at Stockwell station yesterday as he was chased, tackled, then shot.
Commuter Teri Godly said she stood next to the man early yesterday before police charged in.
"A tall Asian guy, shaved head, slight beard, with a rucksack got in front of me. Shortly after that, as I was about to get on to the train, eight or nine undercover police with walkie-talkies and handguns started screaming at everyone to 'get out, get out'," she told Sky News television.
"I've never seen anything like it in my life. I saw them kill a man basically. I saw them shoot a man five times," witness Mark Whitby told BBC television.
Sky cited security sources as saying the man was not one of the four being hunted for the bomb attacks on three trains and a bus at lunchtime on Thursday that killed no one.
The man shot was "directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation", Metropolitan Police chief Ian Blair told a news conference. "The man was challenged and refused to obey police instructions."
