Windows blown out on top deck of Number 26

AT 1.30pm the driver of the number 26 bus reported hearing a bang followed by a smell of cordite and smoke coming from the upper deck while driving along Hackney Road near Shoreditch in east London.

He went upstairs to investigate and found that the windows had been blown out. Passengers and people in surrounding houses and shops were evacuated, while police examined a rucksack left on the bus.

Witness Paul Williamson, a 19-year-old bank worker, was in a tattoo parlour 20 yards away from the bus at the time of the explosion.