London Terror raid man "shot without warning"

LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) A British man shot by police during an anti-terrorism raid in London said today the officer gave him no warning before pulling the trigger.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who was shot in the shoulder, said he thought he was going to die during the pre-dawn operation at their east London house on June 2.

''We both had eye contact, he shot me straight away,'' he told a news conference. ''I just saw an orange spark and a big bang. I flew into the wall, slipped down. There was blood coming down my chest. I knew I was shot.'' There have been conflicting reports about how he was shot, with some newspapers saying there had been a struggle. Police have said only that a shot was fired and an investigation is under way.

He and his brother Abul Koyair, 20, said they believed their house in Forest Gate was being burgled because the police did not identify themselves.

''I thought one by one they are going to kill us,'' said Kahar, his right arm in a sling. ''I thought I was going to die.'' The pair were released without charge last week after being arrested under the Terrorism Act 2000.

They denied any link to terrorism and said they had no idea why police had raided their house.

Their release and the police's apparent failure to find evidence in the house of what media reports said was a suspected chemical bomb raised questions over the intelligence which led to the raid.

Newspapers said the high-profile operation had increased pressure on London police chief Ian Blair, already under fire over the fatal shooting on a London train last July of a Brazilian wrongly suspected of being a suicide bomber.

The Forest Gate operation, which involved police wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits, was one of the biggest since last July's bombings in London killed 52 commuters.

A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman declined to comment.

London police have apologised for the disruption caused by the raid but say they had no choice but to act on ''very specific intelligence''.

REUTERS SHB RS1811