Rogue trader: I made a fortune on 7/7

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High-stakes broker Jérôme Kerviel, 32, told how only days before the attacks he gambled on the markets that the share price of global insurance giant Allianz would tumble.

When the London bombings took place in 2005, killing 52 commuters and injuring 700, the price of Allianz stock crashed and within minutes Kerviel had made about £350,000.

Kerviel, who was due to appear before investigating magistrates for the last time today before his case is prepared for trial, said: "At first I celebrated like mad because I didn't know about the bombs and thought the share price had fallen because London had been hit by a major power cut. I thought I'd hit the jackpot by short-selling Allianz stock, making a half a million euro killing in a few minutes."

In an interview with French daily Le Parisien, he went on: "Then all of a sudden I heard the news and realised that while I had been celebrating, people had been blown up by bombs. I ran to the toilets and threw up -but that moment of weakness didn't last long because I had to get back to my desk and get back to work."

But Kerviel said the Soc Gen bank also 'made a fortune' on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York.

He said: "I heard it was the best day's trading in the bank's history. I don't know how much they made, but apparently the gains were colossal."

Kerviel, 32, was sacked by the Paris-based bank in January last year for amassing the biggest trading losses in history. He is currently facing charges of breach of trust, fabricating documents and illegally accessing computers, and faces three years in prison and a £300,000 fine.

The Brittany-born trader, now working as a lowly IT consultant in Paris, has always insisted the bank's bosses knew about his high-risk trading strategy and is making him a 'a scapegoat'.

But Soc Gen lawyer Jean Veil said: "The losses that he generated were the financial equivalent of the sudden disappearance of five nuclear power stations. This man single-handedly cost the bank a fortune and should have been kept locked up to prevent him from either escaping or contacting people who could prejudice the investigation."