Officer who killed De Menezes mistaking him for terrorist says 'I had to take the shot'

The Metropolitan police officer who shot dead an innocent man in 2005 after mistaking him for a terrorist says he was justified in opening fire as he feared he would die.

- Vikram Dodd

Jean Charles de Menezes was held down and shot repeatedly in the head by firearms officers on an underground train at Stockwell station on 22 July 2005.

Errors and misunderstandings meant police mistakenly thought he was a suicide bomber, and was one of four terrorists at large who had attacked London's transport system the day before.

One of two officers who shot the innocent man has spoken to a Channel 4 documentary about the case in his first media interview. The officer, known only as C12, recently retired from the Met and said he only had 10 seconds to look at a grainy picture of the terror suspect police were hunting.

He said that until that day he had never fired his weapon at a suspect.