It’s been almost 20 years since the horrors of the 7/7 London bombings, which saw four suicide bombers descend on the capital’s transport system and detonate homemade explosive devices.
However, just two weeks after Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Germaine Linsday and Hassib Hussain killed 52 people, as well as injuring 784 others, a second attack took place – but the bombs failed to properly detonate.
With the assailants fleeing the scene, the failed 21/7 bombings led to the UK’s largest ever manhunt.
Netflix’s latest four-part series, Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, looks at this eerily similar (yet fortunately botched) attempt to terrorise the capital, as well as the first attack on the city – and how the desperation to find the terrorists resulted in the killing of an entirely innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes.
With renewed interest in the case, we examine what happened, and the subsequent fallout from the shooting.
Who was Jean Charles de Menezes?
Originally from Brazil, Jean Charles de Menezes grew up on his family farm, before he moved in with his uncle aged 14 to pursue further education. Reportedly skilled with electronics, at age 19, he obtained a professional diploma in São Paulo.
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In 2002, de Menezes moved to the UK with his cousin, Patricia, on a six-month visitor visa and once it expired, applied for a student visa in the hopes of starting a better life.
Along with Patricia, de Menezes lived with another cousin, Alex, in a flat in Tulse Hill, South London, while sending home his electrician’s wages to pay for his father’s cancer treatment back in Brazil. Shortly before his death, de Menezes took a trip home to spend time with his family and unwell father.
21/07 attempted bombings
Hussain Osman (also known as Hamdi Adus Isaac), Yasin Hassan Omar, Ramzi Mohammed and Muktar Said Ibrahim all attempted to detonate bombs on the London transport network. Shepherd’s Bush, Warren Street and Oval tube stations were all targeted, as well as the number 26 bus in Haggerston. A fifth bomber, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, did not go through with his planned attack, and instead abandoned his bomb at a park in West London – and later turned himself into police.
As none of bombs properly deployed, the would-be suicide bombers all fled the scene, leading to a large-scale manhunt. The operation was later described by Sir Ian Blair, the then-Metropolitan Police commissioner, as the “greatest operational challenge ever faced” by the force as police were under huge pressure to find and arrest the bombers before they struck again.
Killing of Jean Charles de Menezes
A gym membership card, attributed to Hussain Osman, was found in one of the bags holding the undetonated bomb. It listed an address in Scotia Road, Tulse Hill – the same block of flats in which de Menezes lived with his cousins.
On 22 July 2005, de Menezes left his Scotia Road residence to head to work. Officers now had the property under surveillance, and an observer believed de Menezes looked like Osman.
One officer, referred to as ‘Frank’ in the inquest, said he believed de Menezes was “a white man”, but told others it would be worth someone else “having a look”. However, another officer was unable to verify whether this was the case as he was urinating.
Menezes took the bus to Brixton station, with officer ‘Ivor’ following him onto the bus and saying that Menezes had distinctive “Mongolian eyes”. Other officers also believed de Menezes was acting suspiciously; as he got off the bus at Brixton, de Menezes found himself having to backtrack – the tube had been closed following the failed bombings the day before.
It was at this point the pursuing officers contacted Gold Command (the group overseeing the resources of the operation), who was then led by Cressida Dick, and reported that de Menezes could potentially be Osman on the move.
At this point, Gold Command authorised Operation Kratos – a set of tactics developed by Met Police in order to deal with suspected suicide bombers, which included officers being able to deploy shots to the head. Gold Command told officers to detain de Menezes before he got on the train; however, at no point was identification confirmed.
Where was Jean Charles de Menezes shot?
As Menezes headed to Stockwell station, he picked up a copy of a free newspaper and boarded an underground train at 10am. With Operation Kratos deployed, firearms officers were sent to the scene, with officers ‘Charlie 12’ and ‘Charlie 2’ in pursuit. They shot Menezes seven times in the head.
It took a day for Jean Charles de Menezes to be formally identified and cleared of any involvement. The Met Police issued an apology, describing events as "a tragedy, and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets".
Aftermath: did the family of Jean Charles de Menezes receive compensation?
Days after de Menezes’s death, it was announced that the incident would be subject to an internal investigation by officers from Scotland Yard's Directorate of Professional Standards and would be referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).
There was a three month inquest into de Menezes’s death, which resulted in an open verdict – which effectively means the jury observing the inquest didn’t find the police’s actions justified, but could not say with certainty that the killing was unlawful.
The jury rejected the police's version of events, specifically their claim that they believed de Menezes was a suicide bomber. This was based on evidence presented during the inquest, including testimony from other passengers on the train.
While the individual officers were not prosecuted, the Metropolitan Police was fined £175,000 under health and safety legislation for endangering the public and failing to ensure de Menezes's safety, as well as ordered to pay £385,000 in costs.
The Met also agreed to pay compensation to the de Menezes family - while no amount has been publicly shared, reports at the time believe this was around £100,000.
In 2015, de Menezes’s family took the British government to the European Court of Human Rights over the decision not to prosecute any police officer for the fatal shooting, which ultimately proved unsuccessful.
De Menezes' cousin, Patricia da Silva Armani, who was living with de Menezes at the time of the shooting, said the family would not give up the fight for justice.
"We had hoped that the ruling would give a glimmer of hope, not only to us, but to all other families who have been denied the right to justice after deaths at the hands of the police," she said in a statement following the ruling.
"We find it unbelievable that our innocent cousin could be shot seven times in the head by the Metropolitan Police when he had done nothing wrong, and yet the police have not had to account for their actions.
"As we have always maintained, we feel that decisions about guilt and innocence should be made by juries, not by faceless bureaucrats and we are deeply saddened that we have been denied that opportunity yet again."
In 2025, Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes was released on Disney Plus – a dramatised, four-part series that observes the events of 2005.
Menezes’s mother, Maria de Menezes, praised the programme for shedding a light on the incident.
“I was reassured that the truth was being told,” she told the BBC at the time of its release. “It really annoys me because I know him. He came from me... My son was educated, civilised, who always respected law and order.”
Attack on London: Hunting the 7/7 Bombers is available to watch on Netflix now.
Kimberley Bond is a Multiplatform Writer for Harper’s Bazaar, focusing on the arts, culture, careers and lifestyle. She previously worked as a Features Writer for Cosmopolitan UK, and has bylines at The Telegraph, The Independent and British Vogue among countless others.
