Coverage of the London bombings in the mainstream press raises awkward questions over the flow of public information as the terrorist attack unfolded on Thursday.

As The Observer (10 July) reports, Scotland Yard “have established that all the tube blasts occurred within 50 seconds of each other”. There were 3 explosions on London Underground, now said to have occurred at 8:50 am.

It is inconceivable that news of these very public events took 24 minutes to reach the authorities. But on Thursday evening, 14 hours later, The Guardian (online update 10:45 pm 7 July) reported the following details:

The police said the first blast occurred at 8. 51am on a tube train about 100 metres into a tunnel from Liverpool Street station. Seven people died. The second blast, with the highest confirmed death toll so far, came five minutes later on a tube train on the Piccadilly line near King’s Cross. Police confirmed 21 deaths.

At 9. 15am, a third explosion hit a train in Edgware Road station, blowing a hole through the wall of a second train and possibly affecting a third. The explosion killed seven people.

The final blast came half an hour later on a number 30 bus at Tavistock Square, near Russell Square.

Police said there were “many casualties” and confirmed two fatalities. The blast ripped the red double-decker bus apart, peeling away its sides, blowing off the roof and leaving the few remaining seats exposed.

Amid the confusion, early reports spoke of seven attacks, as incidents were reported by those in stations at both ends of the affected track. The first reports blamed power problems on the tube but it soon became clear the capital had been targeted by what the Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, called terrible “co-ordinated attacks”.

The Independent online (7 July) has a detailed chronology from the PA which puts the Liverpool St. bomb at 8:51 am, Kings Cross at 8:56 and then “9.17am: Five people are killed in an explosion at Edgware Road Underground station. Police said a blast ripped through a carriage, a wall and into two other trains.” At “9:33 All London Underground services are suspended - the network says it was the result of a power fault across the network.”

What difference does it make which of these accounts is correct? If, as widely reported, the blasts came without warning and with no prior intelligence of an imminent attack, then if Scotland Yard is correct and the blasts occurred effectively simultaneously, the authorities had no time to shut down the tube system or alert the travelling public before the attack on London Underground was completed.

However, with 3 simultaneous explosions it is hard to see why the entire tube system was not shut down immediately afterwards - rather than 43 minutes later - or how the triple bomb attack could have been confused with power problems, as widely reported.

If, however, the original Guardian and Independent reports were correct, the 3rd (Edgeware Rd.) blast was 24 (or 26) minutes after Liverpool St. How long did it take the authorities to decide that Liverpool St. (8:51 am) had been a bomb rather than power problems and why was a train still running at Edgeware Rd. 24 (or 26) minutes later?

The discrepancy between reports on Thursday and those following the Scotland Yard account on Saturday of simultaneous explosions, is compounded by coverage in the Israeli mainstream liberal newspaper Ha’aretz (8 July). The article concerns the Israeli Embassy’s denial of an initial AP report claiming the Embassy had been forewarned of the attack.

LONDON - A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in London strongly denied Associated Press reports indicating British intelligence services informed embassy security officers of terrorists’ intentions to attack an Israeli target.

According to the same AP report, the British alerted the Israeli Embassy just minutes before the series of terror attacks in London.

The erroneous report apparently came to light after the embassy and the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade organized a special conference aimed at supporting investment in Israel and activities on the part of Israeli companies on the London stock exchange.

The conference was supposed to take place at the Great Eastern hotel near the Liverpool Street subway station - one of three stations hit in Thursday’s terror attacks.

Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting in London, was invited to the conference as a keynote speaker.

When the attacks started, Israeli Ambassador Zvi Heifetz, a number of his aides and some conference guests were already situated in the hotel.

The conference was ultimately postponed and Netanyahu’s security personnel prevented his departure from the central London hotel.

“After the first explosion, our finance minister received a request not to go anywhere, ” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Army Radio.

Netanyahu had been scheduled to stay in London until Sunday, but that could change, said Amir Gilad, a Netanyahu aide.

Heifetz said Thursday afternoon that British police had called to tell embassy personnel to stay inside their offices.

“There is fear that this wave [of violence] has not yet ended, ” Hefetz said.

In the wake of the London attacks, the Shin Bet security service ordered all Israeli embassies around the world placed on high alert, Channel 1 reported Thursday evening.

According to the Israeli foreign minister, Netanyahu was informed “after the first explosion”, and the Ambassador stated the warning originated from the British police. In which case, why wasn’t the London public also informed of the nature of the attack at that point?

If the explosions were indeed simultaneous, as per Scotland Yard on Saturday, what led the Guardian and Independent to report otherwise on Thursday? Both had spoken to the police. If there were 3 simultaneous bombs at 8:50, why was the Underground left running until 9:33?

Although these questions are overshadowed by the Government’s silence on Iraq as Thursday unfolded, they are still real.