LONDON, April 9: The London bombings last July were planned on a shoestring budget from information on the internet and with no direct support from Al Qaeda, a British newspaper on Sunday quoted a government report as saying. The attacks were the product of a “simple and inexpensive” plot hatched by four British suicide bombers bent on martyrdom, the newspaper reported.

The four men had scoured “terror (Web) sites” on the internet and their knapsack bombs cost only a few hundred pounds, The Observer said. After the July 7 attacks, police found an unused explosive rucksack in the bombers’ abandoned car, leading to a manhunt for a missing suspect, but the report concludes there was no fifth bomber.

The report, due to be published in the next few weeks, also found nothing to support the theory that an Al Qaeda fixer, presumed to be from Pakistan, helped plan the attacks.—Reuters