What else can you do when you believe that a person is about to set off a homicide bomb? Even leftist London Mayor Ken Livingston admits as much.

Mr Livingstone said: "If you are dealing with someone who might be a suicide bomber, if they remain conscious they could trigger plastic explosives or whatever device is on them, and therefore overwhelmingly in these circumstances it is going to be a shoot-to-kill policy."

Speaking of yesterday's operations, he said: "With each of these attacks, we have responded more rapidly and effectively and I'm glad it went as well as it did."

That does not, of course, stop complaintes from the usual suspects.

Muslim community leaders said they were taking calls from fellow Muslims who are afraid they may be targeted simply because they are carrying the wrong bag or wearing the wrong clothes.

The Muslim Council of Britain urged Scotland Yard to explain why police shot dead the Asian man who has been described as a "suspected suicide bomber". According to an eyewitness report the man was shot with five bullets. Spokesman Inayat Bunglawala said: "There may well be reasons why police felt it was necessary to unload multiple bullets into this man and shoot him dead, but they need to make those reasons clear.

"It is vital that police give a statement about exactly what occurred and explain why this man was shot dead rather than arrested and brought to trial."

Mr Bunglawala said Muslims were nervous and feared reprisal attacks.

He said: "I have just had one phone call saying, 'What if I was carrying a rucksack?' We are getting phone calls from quite a lot of Muslims who are distressed about what may be a shoot-to-kill policy."

Sorry, Bunglawala, but your co-religionists have unfortunately made Muslim lives very cheap. Jihadi swine have made it necessary for police to act in a manner that stops bombings and avoids setting off explosives strapped to the body. That means that suspects are going to die -- and they will be Muslims. I'm not celebrating it, just noting the revised reality that the terrorists in your midst have created. Until and unless you people start turning in the killers and would-be killers, this is how it will be. And until you eject the radicals from your midst, it will be impossible for the police to know who is a friend and who is a foe. I think the people of London would agree with that calculus.