London’s senior police officer has warned that a Madrid-style terrorist attack on the Capital is inevitable.

Security sources fear pubs, buses and trains could be the likely target.

Speaking at a press conference alongside mayor Ken Livingstone, Sir John Stevens, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, urged the public not to think solely of trains as a terrorist target.

Other transport forms and clubs where people gather in large numbers at night were also at risk, he said.

In what confirmed the when, not if, strategy now adopted by the government, the mayor added that it would be "miraculous" if London avoided an attack.

That leads today's press to suggest that the focus is now as much on dealing with the aftermath of a terror attack than on thwarting one.