Prayers across Britain as search on for bodies

On the day the country was due to remember the end of World War II and the suffering caused by that conflict, Queen Elizabeth was expected to mention the dead and the missing of Thursday's rush-hour attacks.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said he expected the toll to rise beyond 50 dead, but insisted he was confident police would catch the perpetrators.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, primate of the Church of England, condemned the "spirit of murder and humiliation."

"Today of all days, we need no reminder that the spirit of murder and humiliation is still abroad," he told a nationally televised service at Westminster Abbey attended by the queen.

In his regular Sunday message at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI told the bombers to "stop in the name of God," calling for prayers for the attackers as well as the victims and their families.

Londoners prayed in St. Pancras Church, steps from the blast that shredded a double-decker bus.

"The people who carried out these attacks are victims of a false religion, be it false Chistianity or false Islam," Father Paul Hawkins told the congregation, as police stood guard outside.

As worshippers left the service, they could see a team of forensic experts, placing heel against toe, their eyes glued to the ground for scraps of evidence.

Behind them, a large white tarpaulin hung like a stage curtain, blocking access to Tavistock Square where the Number 30 bus was blown up, killing 13 people.

The country remained jittery since the Thursday morning attacks on London's transport system in which at least 50 people were killed and some 700 wounded. More than 20 people are still missing.

The three train blasts in London occurred within 50 seconds of one another at about 8:50 am (0750 GMT), a level of coordination that bore the hallmarks of an attack by suspected Al-Qaeda operatives, and there have been two claims of responsibility by groups linked to the organisation.

Police evacuated some 20,000 people from Birmingham overnight Saturday in response to a "credible threat" which they said later evaporated.

"I am confident that the perpetrators will be brought to justice in the end," Clarke said.

"I am very optimistic indeed. I think the track record of our security services in bringing people to justice is good. The problem is the time it takes," he told the BBC's News 24 Sunday programme.

He said the toll is "likely to be more than 50" people killed.

Police said on Saturday that they had made no arrests and had yet to focus on any particular suspect.

"Our fear is of course of more attacks until we succeed in tracking down the gang that committed the atrocities on Thursday," Clarke said. "That is why the number one priority has to be the catching of the perpetrators."

As police continued their painstaking search, a former police chief warned that the bombers were probably British and that there were many in the country willing to take part in such atrocities.

In a column in the News of the World tabloid, Sir John Stevens, the former head of Scotland Yard, said "the terrorists at the center of the London bombing this week will almost certainly be British born and bred, brought up here and totally aware of British life and values."

Stevens said the likely suspects would be "apparently-ordinary British citizens, young men conservatively and cleanly dressed and probably with some higher education."

"They are also willing to kill without mercy -- and to take a long time in their planning. They are painstaking, cautious, clever and very sophisticated.