Man shot thought to be accomplice of Tube bombers

YESTERDAY'S fatal shooting at Stockwell happened at 10am when armed plainclothes 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.

The man "was challenged and refused to obey police instructions", Police Commissioner Ian Blair said.

"This shooting is directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation."

Police did not provide any more information about the circumstances of the shooting.

Passengers said a man, who appeared to be South Asian, ran onto a train in Stockwell station. Some said that an officer was waiting for him on the train.

Plainclothes police shot multiple times while he was on the floor, witnesses said.

"They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him," witness Mark Whitby said. "He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified."

Another witnesses, Anthony Larkin, told the BBC that the man appeared to have "a bomb belt and wires coming out." Police shouted 'Get down! Get down!', he said, adding that "people were panicking and I heard shots being fired."

Mr Whitby said the man ran onto the train car hotly pursued by plainclothes officers - one wielding a black handgun.

He said the man did not appear to have been carrying anything but was wearing a thick coat that looked padded. Temperatures in overcast London yesterday were in the 20s.

Ordinary police officers in London do not usually carry guns, but some special units do, and armed police have become more common on the streets in recent years.

Stockwell is one station away from the Oval station, which was affected by Thursday's attacks.

A terrorism expert said the police appear to have used very similar tactics to those deployed against suicide bombers in the Middle East.

Security forces in the Middle East tend not to shoot suspects in the chest or abdomen because of the risk of detonating explosives strapped to waistcoats habitually worn by bombers, according to Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University.

"To be blunt, they go for a head shot," he said.