“We know that we have four explosions or attempts of explosions, and it is still pretty unclear as to what has happened. There is certainly a scene at the Oval underground station. There is a scene at Warren Street underground station. There is a scene at Shepherd’s Bush, which is on the underground but is actually above ground. There is a scene on a number 26 bus in Hackney. At the moment the casualty numbers appear to be very low in the explosions and the bombs appear to be smaller than on the last occasion but we don’t know the implications of all this yet. We are going to have to examine the scene very carefully.

“I have a couple of messages that I really need to give if I can.

“The first is obviously part of the transport system is going to close down for a short while, while we work out what is happening. And it is very important that Londoners or people in London stay where they are.

“The second announcement is we will make a further announcement around what the travel implications are, but what we don’t want is lots of people going to railway stations - the trains as far as I know are still running. But it is just stay where you are go about your normal business. The plan is there. We have seen it happen before it is rehearsed the emergency services are getting control over a very confused scene. Clearly this is a very serious incident.”