Tuesday timeline

Tuesday 9am: Bewildered residents who woke to find their streets full of police finally learn what is going on, when Metropolitan Commissioner Sir Ian Blair announced that a series of raids “directly connected to the outrages on Thursday” was underway.

Tuesday 11.30am

Police go to the Burley area of Leeds, cordon off the area and evacuate 500-600 people from their homes. Two hours later army engineers moved in under police direction and carried out a controlled explosion to blow their way into a house in Hyde Park Road, which was searched for evidence of explosives.

Tuesday 2.45pm

As police continued to search the home of Shezhad Tanweer, 22, a representative of a Leeds car hire firm arrived at the house in Colwyn Road inquiring about an unreturned Nissan Micra hired a week previously.

Police dispatched officers to search for the Micra at Luton Rail Station, where, at 2.45pm, the station was evacuated.

Police moved into the car park and a series of controlled explosions was carried out.

Tanweer is believed to be the second suicide bomber and he died on the underground. Explosives were found in the car. Later, a second car believed to be connected to the bombings was also recovered in the Luton area.

Tuesday 5.05pm

The Met reveals men from West Yorkshire had travelled to London via Luton on the day of the bombings. All four men boarded a Thameslink train to King’s Cross where they were captured on CCTV just before 8.30am.

The Yorkshire Post quoted a senior security source, who has viewed the footage, who said: “They were chatting. You would think they were going on a hiking holiday.”