LONDON: British police face a ‘deadly dilemma’ when dealing with suspected suicide bombers following the July 7 London attacks, newspapers noted on Saturday. The seriousness of the police response was demonstrated on Friday when a man who fled from officers at a London Underground subway station was pursued into a train, cornered and — witnesses said — shot repeatedly in the head at point blank range.

Police said later the man had been seen leaving a house linked to attacks the day before when four rucksack-carried bombs exploded on subway trains and a bus, but seemingly failed to go off fully, injuring no one.

The man, who was wearing a thick coat on a warm summer day, could have been a suicide bomber like the four who killed themselves and 52 other people on subway trains and a bus on July 7, The Sun newspaper noted in its editorial.

“When he fled and ignored shouts of ‘police, stop’, they were left with a deadly dilemma,” the paper said.

“Do they wait — and perhaps allow the suspect to kill himself and dozens of others? Or do they kill him — and perhaps find that he is not carrying explosives?” it asked, calling for people to back the security services.

“We are all in this together, and we must support the police who are here to protect us all,” it said.

Britain’s Independent Police Complaints Commission was investigating the shooting, an IPCC spokeswoman confirmed.

The incident was being referred to the body in line with normal procedure.

Armed police in Britain can only open fire if a suspect is judged a serious risk to the public.

Officers may shoot only when absolutely necessary and after allowing a suspect sufficient time to heed a warning of intent to use firearms.

“In carrying out this investigation, the IPCC will ensure that nothing is done to hinder the urgent police priority of tracking down and bringing to justice those responsible for the recent London bombings and their vital work to prevent further outrages,” IPCC chief Nick Hardwick said in a statement.

The Financial Times said guidelines had been secretly updated in recent weeks advising officers to shoot in the head to avoid hitting a suicide bomb.

“Shoot all bombers”, urged the Daily Express in its headline, saying demands were growing for ‘suicide fanatics’ to be shown no mercy.

“London is living through extraordinary days,” The Times noted in its editorial.

“The killing of a suspect may be shocking; it will sadly not be the last such instance,” it predicted.

Although police gave no details about the dead man save that he was under surveillance in connection with the previous day’s attacks, some newspaper reports said he was not one of the bombers, nor was he armed or carrying a bomb.

British police do not regularly carry arms, and the shooting dead of a suspect, especially in such a seemingly calculated way, is extremely unusual in the country.

“If this man was unarmed and not carrying a bomb it will raise worrying questions — not least that if we behave as badly as the terrorists don’t we risk losing the moral high ground in the war against them?” the Daily Mail asked.

“The tragedy is that when indiscriminate murder is planned by fanatics in our midst, the security authorities are increasingly likely to be forced into such life-or-death decisions,” it said.

“So long as they take scrupulous steps to avoid error, they will continue to deserve the support of the public they are trying to protect.”

SALES DROP: Sales have dipped in the wake of the recent bomb attacks on London, shopkeepers on the city’s main shopping street said on Saturday as merchants braced for longer-term damage from cancelled tourism.

“I speak to all the managers in the shops around here and I can tell you that sales have gone like that,” Mr John, a stallholder who sells bags on Oxford Street, said with a downhill gesture.

Following the first bomb attacks on July 7 which killed 56 people on three subway trains and a bus in London, shoppers had begun to re-emerge, but Thursday’s bungled repeat attempts have brought about a new slump, according to merchants.

“On Friday, compared to the previous Friday, it went down. I sold half of my usual amount of bags,” Mr John said.

A consultancy, SPLP, said 27 per cent fewer shoppers were present in central London on Thursday.

Mr John said the atmosphere was gloomy among fellow vendors, who had been already complaining about the economic climate and eight-pound daily congestion charge on drivers into central London.

Roger Hurcomb, 57, a manager of a menswear store, said the July 7 attacks had ‘affected us dramatically’.—afp