Shoot-to-kill guidelines for UK police By Jimmy Burns and Frederick Studemann in London
Police have been given secret new shoot-to-kill guidelines in recent weeks, it emerged on Friday after officers shot a man dead on an Underground train at Stockwell, south London.
The new guidelines for armed police and surveillance officers confronting suspected suicide terrorists advise them to shoot to the head and not the body in case the suspect has a bomb.
Friday morning's shooting was a significant escalation in the hunt for the terrorists behind the bomb attacks that have killed more than 50 people. Police said the dead man had been under observation because he had emerged from a house linked to the investigations into Thursday's attempted attacks on three Tube trains and a bus.
But security insiders said the man, who was described by witnesses as of Asian appearance, was not one of the four men suspected of Thursday's attacks.
The implication that police were operating a so-called "shoot-to-kill" policy against suspected terrorists could be highly controversial. Nigel Churton, chief executive of security consultants Control Risks, said "those arguing that the war on terrorism is getting out of hand are going to have a field day.
On Friday night the London-based Islamic Human Rights Commission called for a public enquiry into the shooting in Stockwell. "This is an extra-judicial killing by police who have been trained in shoot-to-kill," it said.
The police now face inquiries into their actions that could hit morale, and last night the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed that it was investigating the Stockwell shooting. Sir Ian Blair, Metropolitan Police Commissioner, said the force was confronting what he called its "greatest operational challenge ever". They faced "previously unknown threats and great danger," he added as he appealed for "the understanding of all communities".
Sir Ian said the dead man had been "challenged and refused to obey police instructions."
Police raided at least three addresses in London on Friday. Scotland Yard said a man has been arrested in Stockwell.
Police released closed circuit TV pictures of the four suspects and sought public assistance as forensic work continued on what appeared to be home-made explosive devices used on Thursday.
A spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said on Friday night a "special project group had developed operational tactics to help police respond swiftly and effectively to such threats". The guidelines were secretly developed in consultation with police forces including Israel, Russia and the US.
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Eyewitness accounts By Frederick Studemann and agencies
A round-up of eyewitness accounts from people at the scene.
Anthony Larkin, a 30-year-old care assistant who lives in Stockwell area, was about to get on a northbound Victoria train to go to Victoria at 10.10am. "Suddenly a whole load of police officers appeared, some of them in uniform, some without uniform, with guns drawn. They were shouting 'get down, get down'."
He said: "I froze. Then I heard two gun shots - people were screaming, shouting, crying."
"I saw the guy - he had a beard, he was thin, Asian looking. He was trying to board a train. They shot him twice in the front."
"He was wearing jeans, T-shirt and a jacket. You could see wires coming out the front. Wires like a bomb belt."
Colin Opher, general manager at the nearby Stockwell bus garage, said the first time he knew there was an incident was on the arrival of an air ambulance and police cordoning off the area. "Police dealt with things very swiftly."
"We are carrying on as normal. We have a very good team here. They are very wary and do check buses very carefully befor they go out." He said services would be operating as normal wherever possible. He said staff were not scared. "It's more like the war time spirit."
"They basically unloaded five shots into him"
Mark Whitby, a passenger on the train that was the scene of the shooting, told BBC News 24 he saw an Asian man run onto the train pursued by three plainclothes officers, one of whom was wielding a black gun.
"He half tripped... they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him," he said
"As [the suspect] got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox.
"He looked absolutely petrified and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him, [they] couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor and the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand.
"He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him.
"He had a baseball cap on and quite a sort of thickish coat - it was a coat you'd wear in winter, sort of like a padded jacket.
"He might have had something concealed under there, I don't know. But it looked sort of out of place with the sort of weather we've been having, the sort of hot humid weather.
"He was largely built, he was quite a chubby sort of guy.
"I didn't see any guns or anything like that - I didn't see him carrying anything. I didn't even see a bag to be quite honest.
"I got into the ticket hall. I was approached by a policeman and London Underground staff asking me if I needed counselling."
"There was blind panic"
Journalist Chris Martin said he was waiting on the northbound Northern line platform at Stockwell station and a train had pulled in when several men burst on to the platform about 20 yards from him.
"There was a lot of shouting, I thought it was football fans or something," he said.
"There was obviously some sort of altercation going on, and then they came flying on to the platform and these guys just threw this man into the open doors of the train.
"Then I heard shots, I thought it was three but someone else said five.
"It sounded like a silencer gun going off, and then there was blind panic with people shouting and screaming and just running away.
"I didn't actually see the gun, but I heard this 'bang, bang, bang'.
"When I left the station a guy called Mark who had been on the train said they had shot the man dead, no doubt about it."
"Get out, get out"
``We were on the Tube when we suddenly heard someone say 'get out, get out' and then we heard gunshots - someone was shooting," 23-year-old Briony told the Press Association.
``Somebody in plain clothes who I thought was a civilian cop had his gun out and started shooting and told us to get out.''
`The train didn't stop at Vauxhall and so I got out at Stockwell," Christopher Scaglione, 35, told PA.
``I was just on my way out when I heard at first a little bang, not like a bomb more like a gun, and then people were shouting.
``People then started to run and I heard two or three more bangs like people shooting.''