Shoot To Kill: London's 7/7 Tube bombings, what happened and Jean Charles de Menezes shooting

One of London’s darkest days saw 52 innocent people killed in a deadly terrorist attack. But this tragic day in the capital’s history would also lead to the killing of another innocent bystander at the hands of the Metropolitan Police.

The July 7 Tube bombings saw 52 people killed and almost 800 people injured. Channel 4’s new documentary, Shoot To Kill: Terror on the Tube, will explore the aftermath of this terrorist attack and the tragic shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent bystander caught up in the police’s manhunt.

The documentary, which will air on Sunday, November 10 on Chanel 4, will hear from the firearms officer who shot Jean Charles de Menezes. According to the BBC, the officer said: "Reliving it in this detail is painful.

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"I want to make sure that people understand these decisions; although they're taken quickly, they're not taken lightly.

"Because of his actions, what he did, and the information we received, it left me with no other conclusion than I had to act or we were going to die."

What happened during the 7/7 bombings?

Four suicide bombers struck the London Underground and London bus network on July 7, 2005. The attacks saw 52 people killed and over 770 others injured. Three of the blasts happened in the vicinity of Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square stations at around 8.50am.

A fourth bomb was later exploded on a bus in Tavistock Square, at around 9.45am. The explosions had been caused by improvised explosive devices made from concentrated hydrogen peroxide and pepper packed into backpacks.

There were later attempted follow-up attacks on July 21, 2005 which saw a group of would-be bombers target London's transport system again only for their devices to fail to explode. A man hunt for the suspects ensued, with 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes later killed by the Metropolitan Police.

Who were the victims?

There were 52 people killed during the July 7 attacks, with over 770 people injured. Victims included people from all walks of life, whose stories you can explore more here.

The most deadly of the attacks was the Russell Square attack aboard a Piccadilly line train between King’s Cross and Russell Square which killed 26 people. The bombs abroad the Circle line train at Edgware Road killed six people, the Circle line train at Aldgate killed seven people and 13 people were killed by the bomb detonated on the double-decker bus in Tavistock Square.

Who were the attackers?

Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Hasib Mir Hussain, 18 had driven down from Leeds to Luton, Bedfordshrie, where they met the fourth attacker, Germaine Lindsay, 19. All four of the killed themselves in the planned suicide attacks. They were all found to have links to Islamic extremism.

The bombers were described by Charles Clarke, Home Secretary as “clean skins” meaning they were previously unknown to the authorities before the attacks, reported the Guardian. A video which was broadcast by Arabic television station Aljazeera showed one of the attackers, Mohammed Sidique Khan, saying: “I am directly responsible for protecting and avenging my Muslim brothers and sisters.”

The video also showed Ayman al-Zawahri, said to be Osama bin Laden's second-in-command, which allegedly confirmed that al-Qa'ida was behind the attacks in the capital, reports the Independent.

Who was Jean Charles de Menezes and why was he shot?

Mr Menezes, who had moved to the UK from Brazil in 2002, was just 27-years-old when he was killed by Metropolitan Police officers on July 22, 2005.

Following the tragic bombing on July 7, a second attempted attack on London’s transport was carried out on July 22. However, this ultimately failed, with the explosives failing to detonate properly.

The next day Metropolitan Police officers had been searching for the suspects who had carried out the attempted bombings. Officers had been surveying the block of flats on Scotia Road, South London, where Menezes, an electrician lived.

Officers believed that one of the would-be attackers lived at the address, but in a case of mistaken identity, police followed Menezes as he left the apartment block as he took a bus to Stockwell station and boarded a train.

Onboard he was shot seven times in the the head and once in the shoulder. The Metropolitan Police Service was fined £560,00 following the incident, for endangering the public, reports the Independent.

Planned London attack on anniversary

A follow-up anniversary attack to the July 7 bombings was foiled by an undercover investigator in 2015. The plot had been planned by Mohammed Rehman, 25, and his wife, Sana Ahmed Khan, 24.

Mr Rehman has been stockpiling chemicals needed to make a bomb, even filming himself setting off a small explosion in his back garden, reports the BBC. His wife, Ms Khan, had supplied him with money to help him carry out the attack.

He had posted details about the plan online to his twitter account, alongside extremist material. Rehman, 25, was sentenced to serve a minimum of 27 years and Khan, 24, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars, which was later reduced to 23 years on appeal.

Got a story? Please get in touch at katherine.gray@reachplc.com

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