Video pictures show bombers leaving Bishopsgate lorry

POLICE yesterday released the first pictures of two men who planted the bomb in the City of London last weekend.

The pictures, enhanced images taken from a surveillance video in Bishopsgate, show the men walking away after leaving a lorry packed with explosives. They are wearing hooded jackets to hide their faces.

The camera, 200 to 300 yards from the blast, captured what police described as 'man one' walking briskly away from the bomb.

He was wearing a dark jacket with a full hood pulled over his head obscuring his face.

At first his left hand was placed in his pocket. A few steps later he places his right hand in his jacket pocket as well.

As he moves out of camera shot the suspect is also seen to glance back over his right shoulder towards where the bomb was planted.

The still pictures, shot at about 8.57am, make it clear the two men deliberately walked away from the lorry separately. One picture captures the bomber at very close range but the hood of his jacket covers his face.

Commander David Tucker, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist squad, told a news conference: 'We are convinced these are the two men who left the lorry and it is reasonable to assume they are the bombers.' Witnesses had confirmed seeing them getting out of the lorry and he believed they were still distinctive enough for someone to recognise them.

'Man one', seen getting out of the driver's side of the lorry, was between 5ft 8in and 5ft 9in and stockily built. He was wearing a slate grey three-quarter length anorak and dark trousers. Immediately he got out of the lorry, he pulled the hood up. His passenger, 'man two', was slimmer and about 5ft 9in tall, wearing pale light-blue jeans and a blue and white mottled jean jacket with a hooded jogging top underneath. He also pulled the hood up to hide his face.

(Photograph omitted)