Just to recap what has been published previously on the BBC website, because with hindsight it makes the Menezes incident really tragic. (my emphasis, added)

[news.bbc.co.uk] – Published 22nd July 2005

Scotland Yard said the man shot dead at about 1000 BST on Friday in Stockwell had still to be formally identified. […]

The man was under police observation because he had emerged from a house that was being watched following Thursday’s attacks, a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

He was followed by surveillance officers to Stockwell station, where his clothing and behaviour added to their suspicions, he added. […]

Police warned the man, who ran on to the station platform. Witnesses said the officers opened fire as he jumped on to a train.

Sir Ian told a press conference: “I need to make clear that any death is deeply regrettable but as I understand the situation the man was challenged and refused to obey police instructions.” […]

Stockwell passenger Mark Whitby told BBC News he had seen a man of Asian appearance shot five times by “plain-clothes police officers”.

“One of them was carrying a black handgun – it looked like an automatic – they pushed him to the floor, bundled on top of him and unloaded five shots into him,” he said. […]

Another passenger on the train, Anthony Larkin, told BBC News the man appeared to be wearing a “bomb belt with wires coming out”. […]

He told BBC News: “We were sitting for a few minutes on the platform, then we heard shouting from the concourse between the two platforms.

“Then the man burst in through the door to my right and grabbed hold of the pole and a person by the glass partition near the door, diagonally opposite me.

“An officer jumped on the door to my left and screamed, ‘Everybody out!’

“People just froze in their seats cowering for a few seconds and then leapt up.

“As I turned out the door onto the platform, I heard four dull bangs.

[news.bbc.co.uk] – Published 22 July 2005

One terrorism expert said if the shooting was carried out by police – rather than special forces – it would represent a “pretty big departure” for the UK force.

Professor Michael Clarke, professor of defence studies at King’s College London, said the officers who carried out the operation in south London were unlikely to be police.

“These guys may have been some sort of plain clothes special forces,” he said.

“To have bullets pumped into him like this suggests quite a lot about him and what the authorities, whoever they are, assumed about him.

“The fact that he was shot in this way strongly suggests that it was someone the authorities knew and suspected he was carrying explosives on him.”

He added: “You don’t shoot somebody five times if you think you might have made a mistake and may be able to arrest him.”

Prof Clarke said police officers were not trained to carry out operations in this way.

“Even Special Branch and SO19 (Scotland Yard’s armed unit) are not trained to do this sort of thing.

I really do wonder about the bomb belt with wires hanging out of it – possibly this was an iPod or similar?

Dear oh dearie me.