7/7 inquest: Pc feared bomb threat to more buses

One of the first police officers at the scene of the 7/7 bus bombing asked for all buses in the area to be searched for explosives, an inquest has heard.

Pc Christopher Mitchell said he "feared there were potentially more packages on other buses".

An injured woman told him she had seen a fellow passenger "fiddling" with a package before the blast, he recalled.

Hasib Hussain was one of four suicide attackers who killed 52 people on London's public transport network.

Hussain killed himself and 13 others when he detonated his device on the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, and more than 100 people were injured.

Pc Mitchell said: "I remember turning around and looking back towards Euston Road and I could see buses moving still up and down - it was very surreal.

"And I feared there were potentially more packages on other buses possibly.

"So I certainly wanted buses in the immediate vicinity to be stopped and some form of search conducted," the former soldier told the inquest at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

He added that is seemed to him "common sense" to halt other buses in the area and evacuate them, although this was not carried out.

Hussain, 18, the youngest of the four suicide bombers, detonated his device nearly an hour after explosions on three Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square.

In total, more than 700 people were injured.