London police warn of more bombings

Britain marked the first anniversary of the London suicide bombings with flowers, candles and a two-minute silence yesterday as the city's police chief said another attack now looked more likely.

One year after four young British Islamists blew themselves up on London's transport system, killing 52 people and wounding 700, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair described the threat faced by Britain as "grim".

"There are, as we speak, people in the United Kingdom planning further atrocities," he told BBC Radio. "Since July, the threat has palpably increased."

Across the country, people fell silent at midday (1100 GMT) in memory of the dead. Prime Minister Tony Blair observed the tribute alongside firefighters at their London headquarters on the banks of the river Thames.

"It is a chance for the whole nation to come together to offer comfort and support to those who lost loved ones or were injured on that terrible day," Mr Blair said in a statement.

Tennis fans fell silent at the Wimbledon championships and Queen Elizabeth paused for reflection at a church service in the Scottish capital Edinburgh.

Earlier, remembrance candles were lit under the vast dome of London's St Paul's Cathedral at 8.50 a.m. and at 9.47 a.m. - the times the bombs went off - and wreaths of flowers were laid in Tavistock Square, where the last of the four bombers detonated his explosives on a double-decker bus.

"It's a very sobering moment," Obi Nwosu, an IT manager who was at that ceremony, said. "It makes you realise your day-to-day problems are not really that significant."

Londoners have been living with the fear of a second attack. The fact no one has been charged in connection with Western Europe's first suicide attacks has added to unease.

In what appeared to be a well-timed bid to fuel those fears, a video surfaced on Thursday apparently showing one of the London bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, reading his last testament.

The previously unseen video, broadcast on Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, also showed al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri, suggesting a link between Osama bin Laden's network and the bombers.

The British government says it knows little about the motivation of the London bombers, their possible training abroad or their alleged links to al Qaeda.

Some survivors want a full public inquiry into events which, like the September 11 attacks in the United States, have become etched into the British psyche as a simple date - 7/7.