Tenants shocked as police search flats

RESIDENTS in the block of flats that one of the suspected would-be suicide bombers is thought to have visited, expressed their shock yesterday at the latest developments.

Police named Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, also known as Muktar Mohammed Said, as the man believed to have targeted the number 26 bus in Hackney Road, east London, in the second wave of terror attacks last Thursday.

Detectives are searching 58, Curtis House in Ladderswood Way, New Southgate, north London.

William Sarpong, 33, who lives in the block, said: "Something like this so close to you it makes you nervous. Where are these people? You know you're living with good neighbours but if it turns out a neighbour or a friend of a neighbour is involved in these things, it's shocking."

Mr Sarpong said police were taking residents' details and checking people's identity as they come and go at Curtis House.

Resident Sammy Jones, 33, said she believed she recognised a man who visited the flats as Ibrahim.

"I didn't recognise him before, but I do from the new pictures," said the mother-of-two who lives in the Curtis House flats.

Ms Jones said the man had been staying at a flat on the ninth floor where she knew the long-term resident as an African man called George.

"George has lived there for about two years, and recently three other men have been staying there the Indian-looking man who I think is the man on the bus, and two Somalian men," she said.

Yesterday, police stood guard at the foot of the 12-storey block, and residents were only allowed in if they could show proof of their identity and address.