BUS controllers were only told bombs had gone off on Tube trains after a fourth device detonated on a bus, the 7/7 inquest heard.

During the terror attack of 2005, there was a gap of nearly an hour between the first wave of attacks on the London Underground at 8.50am and the bombing of a number 30 bus at 9.47am.

The Metropolitan Police’s control room received a report at 9.10am stating a bomb had gone off on a train at Aldgate Station but it was not until 9.53am that the senior official was told bombs had been used on the Tube.

The families of some of the 13 victims of the bus blast have questioned why the public transport network was not shut down.

But Alan Dell, London’s bus network liaison manager, said he would not have stopped the buses even if he had known about the earlier attacks because London’s buses had to help move more than 200,000 people from the Tube network.

Mr Dell did suspend buses from central London after suicide bomber Hasib Hussain, 18, blew himself up in Tavistock Square.

Even if the order had been issued earlier it would have taken 90 minutes to take affect and the teenage terrorist may still have been able to board a bus.

The inquest also heard that Tube controllers were hampered by communication problems on the day of the attack,

The hearing continues.