| David Cameron angers Cornwall with Tamar comment David Cameron spent much of the summer trying to endear himself to the people of Cornwall. telegraph.co.uk |
7/7 inquest hears of painstaking search for bombers' identities Team had to plough through tens of thousands of tapes of footage after picking up clues from bomb sitesA Scotland Yard detective today described the desperate race against time to capture vital evidence in the days following the 7/7 bombings, and told the inquest of the first moment he saw CCTV footage of the four suicide bombers carrying rucksacks.Detective Inspector Ewan Kindness, from the Metropolitan police's counter-terrorism unit, said he had been alerted by an ex-military member of the investigating team to its potential sigificance – he noticed the men walking in two-by-two formation, carrying rucksacks.The bombers were identified for the first time on CCTV footage on 11 July, four days after the attack.At the high court today, families witnessed the bombers buying materials just days before their attacks on the London Underground. CCTV footage showed Shehzad Tanweer, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Hasib Hussain arriving at B&Q store on 4 July, in Beeston, Leeds, in a blue Nissan Micra the group had hired for several days in order to help with the attacks. They bought three sets of pliers and two 50 watt bulbs. A receipt was found in Khan's house after the attacks which led police to the store.The next day, Khan was also seen in the Nissan, taking his wife to Dewsbury hospital after complications during her pregnancy.On the day before the attacks, eerie early morning footage of the deserted Asda superstore in Pudsey, Leeds, revealed Khan and Tanweer buying 15 bags of ice at 5.27am. Police were alerted to this shopping trip after finding a till receipt in Edgware Road tube station.Within days of the attack, police had uncovered driving licences for Hussein and Khan from the bomb scenes.Kindness told the inquest of the hunt to trace any sign of the bombers among the tens of thousands of CCTV tapes from the transport network recovered in the aftermath of the attacks. Due to the short retention times of CCTV footage, kept for seven days by London Underground and two weeks by the rail network, more than 100 officers were involved in Operation Theseus, the CCTV-gathering mission, in a desperate attempt to collate evidence before it was destroyed.Five days after the attacks, on 12 July, officers found CCTV of the bombers at Luton rail station. The inquest was also shown footage of when three of the bombers – Khan, Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay – carried out a reconnaissance mission to London from Luton, ahead of the 7 July attacks.Lindsay carried with him a distinctive white carrier bag, which Kindness said made it easier for police to identify him during his journey through London.Throughout the morning, Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquest, took pains to discredit persistent conspiracy theories that had circulated on the internet about the authenticity of CCTV footage.At one point, he drew attention to the breaks and jumps in the tapes, which doubters suggest could reveal parts missing. But Kindness said that the jumps were caused by the system updating and that he was "100% confident" in its veracity. Comments about a piece of railing passing in front of Khan in CCTV pictures outside Luton station, could be explained by the fact that his elbow was bent at 90 degrees, he added.The court also heard from Sylvia Waugh, who lived close to the so-called "bomb factory" in Alexandra Grove in Leeds. In at times contradictory evidence, she said that on the morning of the attacks she had seen "five to six men of Asian appearance" loading rucksacks into two cars. One vehicle was white and the other a "bluey" colour.She told the inquest that she had caught the eye of Lindsay, who she referred to as "the Jamaican". He had frightened her so she pulled away from the window. Following questions from lawyers for families of the victims, the inquest heard that she had not previously mentioned seeing Lindsay on that morning in interviews with the police, although she had mentioned seeing him visiting the flat.She also described seeing other men coming and going around the flat, including someone she called "the Egyptian" a middle-aged, balding man who drove a red Mercedes car and a man she referred to as "the school teacher", who she later confirmed as meaning Khan. Other cars visited the flat, including a navy blue or black sports car, and a silver 4x4 Mitsubishi which she recalled seeing a few days before the attacks.7 July London attacksUK security and terrorismLondonKaren McVeighAlexandra Toppingguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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