BRITAIN: Queen Elizabeth led millions of Britons yesterday in silent remembrance of at least 53 people who died and the more than 700 injured in last Thursday's bomb attacks on London's transport network.
Across Europe millions more observed the two-minute silence at midday in a demonstration of solidarity with a British capital now on sombre notice from the Metropolitan Police Commissioner that a second terrorist attack on the city is now considered "more likely". And in Trafalgar Square last night thousands again gathered for a vigil and a demonstration of 'London United' led by Mayor Ken Livingstone. An array of speakers from former athlete and chairman of the Olympic bid, Sebastian Coe, to television show presenters Richard and Judy, to transport workers recalled the events of a week ago.
As the death toll from last week's bombings rose to 53, police indicated that the fourth suspected suicide bomber was almost certainly Jamaican-born Lindsey Germail, who lived in the house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire raided by anti-terror detectives on Wednesday night. At the same time Scotland Yard issued CCTV footage and a photograph of Hasib Hussain, 18, who they say carried out the Number 30 bus bombing in Tavistock Square.
Police are also hunting a fifth man who they suspect masterminded the attacks but who is believed to have left Britain shortly before Thursday's bombings. A sixth man, an Egyptian chemistry student said to have disappeared from his house in Leeds, is also being sought.
With the forensic examination continuing at all four scenes of crime, the head of the Met's anti-terrorist Branch, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said the police investigation had already uncovered "a vast amount of information" and was yielding new leads "literally by the hour."
However he warned it would take "many months" to complete the investigation, while his Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, warned Londoners his force was facing "the most complex operational challenge since the Second World War". In an interview with the London Evening Standard, Sir Ian confessed his worry that the scale of the explosives find at a house in Leeds earlier in the week was the clearest evidence yet that "there are lots more secret al-Qaeda terrorist cells operating within the UK". Sir Ian confirmed the fear of many Londoners when he said that last week's attack "makes a second terrorist attack on the city even more likely". And he admitted that while many thought to be al-Qaeda trained Muslims living in Britain were under secret surveillance by the security services, the four men they believe to be Britain's first suicide bombers were unknown to the security forces.
Fear of the unknown, however, did nothing to deter the large numbers determined to show their defiance of the bombers yesterday. Britons from Birmingham to the army bases in Basra in Iraq showed solidarity as Londoners stopped in the streets and the capital's traffic came to a halt. Prime Minister Tony Blair observed the silence alongside police officers in Downing Street.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern TD - in London for the award of Dion grants - joined Ambassador Daithi O'Ceallagh and officials and staff as well as members of the public outside the Irish Embassy in Chapel Street. Nearby, meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth made the unprecedented gesture of leading the nation from the forecourt of Buckingham Palace.
But an extraordinary moment in the life of this city was perhaps captured best when George Psaradakis, the driver of that Number 30 bus, joined his colleagues at their east London depot to remember the dead and the suffering of the victims "with quiet dignity and respect" and to show "our deep contempt for those who planted the bombs and those who masterminded them." As city trading stopped and tears were shed among the large crowds at the sites of the four bombings - Aldgate, Edgeware Road, King's Cross and Tavistock Square - Muslims lined the streets in the East End to show their support for the victims. And 'not in our name' was the message on the placards carried by Muslim citizens in Nottingham and elsewhere across the country as local multi-faith leaders stood side by side with their communities.
Prince Charles urged "every true Muslim" to root out extremists in their midst, and said an "evil influence" appeared to have been brought to bear on the suspected bombers. And he said others must resist the temptation to condemn the Muslim community for the actions of an evil minority.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said British Muslims needed to look at "nefarious elements" within their community in a bid to root them out. Stressing the need to listen to the thoughts and concerns of British Muslims at this time, Sir Iqbal added: "All of us - Muslim and non-Muslim - must come together and assist the authorities in their task of bringing all those who were involved in plotting last week's attacks to justice."
Cities across Europe also fell silent during the pause. In Paris, President Jacques Chirac's annual Bastille day television address was put back to mark the moment.
In Madrid government officials stopped work, Berlin's buses, trams and underground trains halted and in Italy, television stations cut into normal broadcasting.
On Indonesia's tourist island of Bali, about 150 people placed candles at the monument marking the site of the October 2002 nightclub blasts that killed 202 people.