This article is more than 11 years old

This article is more than 11 years old

Jean Charles de Menezes was not warned before he was shot dead by police, three witnesses told an inquest today. The claim contradicts the police account that the innocent Brazilian was warned before being shot.

Ralph Livock and his girlfriend Rachel Wilson were sitting in a tube carriage opposite the 27-year-old Brazilian, the inquest heard.

Nicholas Hilliard QC, counsel to the inquest, asked him if he heard the police shout a warning.

"Absolutely not," Livock replied.

"And I remember that specifically because one of the conversations that Rachel and I had afterwards was that we had no idea whether they were police, whether they were terrorists, whether they were somebody else. We just had no idea."

Firearms officers involved in the operation have told the inquest they shouted "armed police" at De Menezes before shooting him.

Wilson also insisted she did not hear this and had no idea who the men who killed the Brazilian were.

Hilliard asked her: "Specifically, did you ever hear anybody shout 'armed police'?"

Wilson answered: "If I had heard that, I would have thought they were police, so no."

Pressed on whether she heard anybody say anything during the shooting, she added: "That's one of the things I recall the most - the silence."

De Menezes was shot seven times in the head at point-blank range after being mistaken for failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

That morning, Livock got on to a northbound Northern Line train at Clapham North station with Wilson, the inquest heard.

While they were waiting at Stockwell station, he heard shouts from outside the train saying something like, "he's here".

Another commuter, Wesley Merrill, said he saw a man come on to the train and point at De Menezes, saying something like "that's the guy".

He could not recall hearing the officers say anything to De Menezes.

None of the passengers in the Tube train were called to give evidence at the Metropolitan Police's Health and Safety trial over the shooting last year.

This is the first time they have spoken in public about what they saw.

The inquest continues.