Police chief apologises for Tube shooting misinformation

Britain's top policeman Ian Blair has acknowledged that he had failed to stop the spread of misinformation after officers killed an innocent Brazilian they had mistaken for a would-be suicide bomber.

Blair said it had been a mistake not to correct rumours in the media that police shot 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes because he vaulted a barrier to enter an underground train station and he was wearing a bulky coat they feared concealed explosives. Neither was true.

Electrician De Menezes was shot eight times at point-blank range as he boarded an underground train on July 22, as police hunted for the terrorists behind four bombs that had failed to explode on the city's transport system a day earlier.