Morning:
11°c
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
London faces a wave of bus and Tube strikes that could cause chaos for millions of passengers as unions walkout over pay and conditions
More...
I fled police in my mother-in-law's burka, says 21/7 bombing suspect
Last updated at 00:07am on 05.05.07
The accused: Yassin Omar feared for his life
Yassin Omar said he escaped 24 hours after he set off a rucksack device on July 21, 2005, as he was terrified the police would shoot him.
Omar was giving evidence for a second day on charges of being in a gang which plotted to explode bombs across London's transport network two weeks after 7/7.
He said he took one of his mother-in-law's black burkas because she "had lots of them".
She used to sell them so there was one which was big enough to fit his 6ft 2in frame, Woolwich Crown Court, South London, heard.
He smiled as he was shown CCTV footage of himself in the burka and holding a handbag, walking to get a coach with his wife.
He said, "That's me.If I didn't disguise myself or go into hiding they would have shot me."
He said he had told his wife they had to go away because his face would be on TV.
Scroll down for more...
The alleged bomber was tracked on CCTV as he tried to escape, a court heard
After spending the night of July 21 at a hotel, they took a bus to Birmingham the next evening from Golders Green, he added.
Watch the alleged bomber as he is tracked by CCTV cameras
Omar claimed he feared the same fate as Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot and killed on the Tube by police who wrongly believed he was a suicide bomber.
Disguise: CCTV image of Omar in the burka
When he heard of the death, he thought co-defendant Hussain Osman had been killed.
Omar, from New Southgate, North London, was arrested by armed specialists from West Midlands Police who broke into his safe house on July 27.
He was woken by "something like a robot making a lot of noise", he said, and was found standing in the bath, fully clothed and wearing a rucksack.
"I thought if I was wearing a bag they would have to think twice and ask what I had got in there - then I would have had a chance to explain," he said.
Omar claimed he was shocked with a Taser stun gun several times, hit with a rifle butt, punched and dragged across the floor.
Earlier, he described the moment he detonated his rucksack explosive on a Tube train in protest against the Iraq war.
He said it sounded like a champagne cork as some of the hydrogen peroxide and chapati flour explosive burst out.
"Some of the people thought it was a joke and just looked at me strangely. Some of them, they looked alarmed. Some of the ladies, they panicked.
"I knew maybe it would cause alarm but I never thought it was going to cause a major panic."
CCTV images showed him leaving the train at Warren Street, before jumping the barriers and running away.
Suspects: (Top from left) Manfo Asiedu, Muktar Said Ibrahim, Ramzi Mohammed, (bottom from left) Yassin Omar, Hussain Osman and Adel Yahya
Omar boarded a bus briefly before heading off on foot and asking two Muslim women for help, the court heard.
"I was hot, panicky and running away from the sirens," he said.
Also on trial are Hussain Osman, 28, and Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 34, both of no fixed address, Mukta Said Ibrahim, 29, and Adel Yahya, 24, both of North London, and Ramzi Mohammed, 25, of West London.
All six deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions likely to endanger life. The trial continues.
