Fresh calls for 7/7 inquiry

ITN

The Government is facing fresh calls for a public inquiry into the July 7 attacks after admitting a mistake in an official account of the bombings.

Home Secretary John Reid told the Commons the published narrative gave the wrong time for the train which four suicide bombers took to London to carry them out.

Grahame Russell, whose son Philip died on July 7, said it raised concerns about the accuracy of the rest of the report.

Mr Reid admitted that the error “may be of concern” and had ordered a report from police into how it had gone undetected for so long.

However, Scotland Yard pointed out that the official account had been produced by the Home Office and police had never given it the time for the train.

A spokesman said the mistake may have come from erroneous first-hand witness accounts of the timing it had received and then passed on.

The official account said Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Germaine Lindsay left Luton station at 7.40am on July 7 last year.

But Mr Reid said he was told last week that it had in fact set off for King’s Cross Thameslink at 7.25am.

The four men killed themselves and 52 innocent people in a series of attacks on London’s transport network later that day.

Shadow Home Secretary David Davis repeated Tory calls for an independent public inquiry, saying it would be “in the best interests of the public”.