London cops under fire for 'fruitless' anti-terror raid

London's Metropolitan Police and its chief Ian Blair have come under fire for mounting such a large-scale but ultimately fruitless raid on a home of a British Muslim family in east London on June 2.

Officers spent a week scouring the brothers' house in Forest Gate, reportedly looking for some kind of chemical weapon, but found nothing to support their suspicions.

Metropolitan Chief Superintendent Ali Dizaei, a Muslim and a member of the Black Police Association, urged people to await the results of an inquiry before making judgments.

"If clearly police officers have overstepped the mark and did not treat them properly then they will have to be called to account," Dizaei told BBC television.

"I am gravely concerned in the way this has been conducted ... in terms of the community confidence, in terms of the proportionality of the operation and so forth," Dizaei said.

"But I don't know the nature of the intelligence, I don't think many people do.

"When the investigation is completed about this we will be in a better picture to realise that."

Asked about morale in the force, he said: "We are going through a very difficult time.

"We have had two critical incidents which have shocked community confidence and shocked many police officers," he said.

"But we will recover from this -- this is not the first time the Metropolitan Police has faced critical incidents like this," he said.

The police came under fire last year for having shot and killed an innocent Brazilian man they had mistaken for a suicide bomber in the wake of an attempt to repeat the July 7 attacks which killed 56 people, including the bombers.

Mohammed Abdul Kahar, 23, who is recovering from a bullet wound to the chest, and 20-year-old Abul Koyair demanded an apology from police who ordered and carried out the dawn swoop on their home.

Speaking publicly for the first time about their ordeal, Kahar, of Bangladeshi origin, told reporters Tuesday: "The only crime I have done in their eyes is being Asian and with a long length of beard."