Bomb suspects caught on film

CCTV footage of two of the alleged July 21 bomb plotters buying more than 200 litres of the main ingredient for their homemade rucksack bombs has been shown in court.

The pictures showed Manfo Kwaku Asiedu and Muktar Said Ibrahim grinning at each other and chatting casually as they completed the purchase of 208 litres of hydrogen peroxide - just two days before the July 7 terror attacks. Their order, comprising 13 boxes, each with four four-litre bottles, was so large that the manufacturers had to make a new batch of hydrogen peroxide to meet it.

At Woolwich Crown Court yesterday, the jury was played CCTV footage from Pak Cosmetics in Finsbury Park, north London, shot on 5 July 2005. It showed Mr Asiedu and Mr Ibrahim strolling into the store to pick up their order for 50 gallons of liquid peroxide at its highest available concentration.

The pair could be seen smiling, stretching and idly looking around, casually chatting to each other and the store's staff as they waited at the counter to pay. After handing over £170 in cash, which followed an earlier deposit of £100, the men were taken by a sales assistant to collect their bottles of 18 per cent strength liquid peroxide from an area at the back of the shop.

The footage showed both men wheeling the boxes out of the store on upright trolleys and loading them into a silver Austin Montego.

The two are accused, along with four others, of plotting to carry out a series of suicide bombings on the London transport system using an explosive mixture of hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour. All the men deny the charges.

The trial continues.