LONDON (July 22) - Plainclothes police chased a man in a thick coat through a subway station, wrestled him to the floor and shot him to death in front of stunned commuters Friday. Police said the shooting was ''directly linked'' to the investigations of the bomb attacks on London's transit system.

Appealing for help from the public to capture the suspects, police released photographs of four men suspected of launching Thursday's second wave of terrorist attacks, saying they bore similarities to the July 7 bombings that claimed 56 lives.

Thursday's bombs partly detonated and contained homemade explosives, police said.

Passengers said a man, described as South Asian, ran onto a train at Stockwell station in south London. Witnesses said plainclothes police chased him, he tripped, and police then shot him.

''They pushed him onto the floor and unloaded five shots into him. He's dead,'' witness Mark Whitby told the British Broadcasting Corp. ''He looked like a cornered fox. He looked petrified.''

Britain is home to many immigrants from the South Asian countries of Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, among others.

Whitby said the man did not appear to have been carrying anything but said he was wearing a thick coat that looked padded. Temperatures in London on Friday were in the 70s.

Police confirmed that armed officers entered Stockwell station in south London just after 10 a.m.

''A man was challenged by officers and subsequently shot,'' a police statement said. ''London Ambulance Service attended the scene. He was pronounced dead at the scene.''

Police would not say which armed unit was involved. Ordinary police officers in London do not usually carry guns, but some special units do, and armed police have become a more common sight on the streets in recent years.

Muslim leaders expressed concern at the shooting. Inayat Bunglawala, spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain, said he had spoken to ''jumpy and nervous'' Muslims since the shooting.

''I have just had one phone call saying 'What if I was carrying a rucksack?' It's vital the police give a statement about what occurred and explain why the man was shot dead,'' he said.

Service on the Northern and Victoria Tube lines, which pass through Stockwell, was suspended because of the shooting, British Transport Police said. Stockwell is one station away from the Oval station, which was affected by Thursday's attacks.


Tight Security for London Commuters




Also Friday, police said they were investigating an apparent attempt to set fire to the home of a man identified as one of the July 7 suicide bombers.

Officers went to the home of Jermaine Lindsay in Aylesbury, 40 miles west of London, on Friday morning after reports of a smell of gasoline in the street, Thames Valley Police said. They confirmed the presence of some kind of fuel.

''The substance was found around the family home of the fourth London bomber, which is currently unoccupied,'' said Superintendent Carole Haveron. Police have identified Lindsay as the bomber who attacked a subway train between Russell Square and King's Cross on July 7.

Investigators searched for fingerprints, DNA and other forensic evidence connected to Thursday's attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, which were hauntingly reminiscent of suicide bombings only two weeks before.

The devices in Thursday's attacks were either small or faulty, and authorities said the only person who needed medical attention was a person suffering an asthma attack. The July 7 bombings on three Underground trains and a bus killed 56 people, including the four suicide bombers.

A statement posted Friday on an Islamic Web site in the name of an al-Qaida-linked group claimed responsibility for Thursday's attacks. The group, Abu Hafs al Masri Brigade, also claimed responsibility for the July 7 bombings. The statement's authenticity could not immediately be verified.

Experts say the group has no proven history of attacks and said it had claimed responsibility for events in which it was unlikely to have played any role, such as the 2003 blackouts in the United States and London that resulted from technical problems. In recent months, it also has made threats that its operatives would strike in Europe if countries there did not withdraw troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The attacks targeted trains near the Oval, Warren Street and Shepherd's Bush stations. The double-decker bus had its windows blown out on Hackney Road in east London.

Jittery commuters already facing cutbacks in service from the last attack faced more Underground closures Friday.

''People are worried, but if it's going to happen, it's going to happen, isn't it?'' said Chidi O'Hanekwu, 23. Still, he said he found himself being ''a bit more paranoid'' on the ride in.

Mia Clarkson, 24, defiantly said she refused to change her schedule. ''You've got to keep living, don't you?'' she said as she exited the Chancery Lane station after a trip from across town.

Newspapers reflected the city's volatile mood - part defiance, part anxiety.

''Britain will not be beaten,'' vowed a front-page headline in the Daily Express. ''Is this how we must now live?'' asked the Daily Mirror over pictures of the attacks' aftermath. The Independent had a similar photo montage and the words: ''City of Fear.''

Police would not comment on the investigation. Witnesses described seeing men fleeing several of the attack scenes.

The nearly simultaneous lunch-hour blasts agitated a jittery capital.

Police appealed for witnesses to give information and set up a Web site to receive amateur video of the attacks and their aftermath.

''Clearly, the intention must have been to kill,'' Police Commissioner Ian Blair said. ''You don't do this with any other intention.''

The London transport agency said the three affected subway stations remained closed Friday, and service was suspended on all or part of several lines.

Authorities said it was too early to determine whether the attacks were carried out by the same organization as the July 7 blasts - or whether they were linked to al-Qaida.

Michael Clarke, director of the Center for Defense Studies at King's College, London, said Thursday's attacks looked ''very amateurish.''

''It looks like determined imitators who perhaps must have planned this a little while ago ... but it doesn't look quite like the same network behind it,'' Clarke told BBC radio.

Saudi ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal, a former head of Saudi intelligence and the incoming ambassador to the United States, said the attacks had ''all the hallmarks'' of al-Qaida.

''The modus operandi, the sheer cowardice associated with them and the attacks on innocent civilians - these are all part and parcel of al-Qaida,'' he told BBC radio.


07-22-05 10:55EDT