LONDON - Across Europe people will pay silent tribute on Thursday to the victims of the bombs that killed at least 52 London commuters and wounded 700 others one week ago.
But the intensive and widening international police investigation into the motives and connections of the four British-born suicide bombers- western Europe's first- will carry on unabated.
London will lead the two-minute silence at midday (1100 GMT) as traffic and businesses stop, flight take-offs are delayed and even hospital workers treating the wounded from the suicide blasts bow their heads.
"London will remember all of those who died last Thursday and show its defiance of those who try to change the character of our city through terror," mayor Ken Livingstone said.
"London will not be moved from our goal of building an open, tolerant, multiracial and multicultural society showing the world its future."
The multiple blasts on three underground trains and a double-decker bus plunged into shock and grief a city that 24 hours earlier had been celebrating being awarded the 2012 Olympic games.
Ryanair, Europe's leading low-cost airline, said it had seen forward bookings drop 10 per cent in the four days following the London bombings.
But Britain's capital city will not be alone, the solemn moment will be marked in towns and cities across Europe in recognition of the multiracial nature of the dead and maimed.
Bourses around Europe said they would mark the occasion, and the 134th British Open golf tournament in Scotland will halt.
Police Raids
Late on Wednesday police raided a residential address in the market town of Aylesbury about 40 miles northwest of London in the search for those behind the bombers but made no arrests and found no explosives.
The raid followed those on several addresses connected to the bombers in the northern English city of Leeds on Tuesday in which one man was arrested on suspicion of the "commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism."
On Wednesday police were given until Saturday to continue questioning the unnamed 29-year-old.
Police also searched two cars on Tuesday that had been left at Luton train station 30 miles north of London, finding some explosives.
Security experts said the four bombers- who included a teaching assistant for disabled children- would have received training and direction from a more senior militant.
"He would have arrived in the UK a knowledgeable bomb maker, trained in the art of evading the authorities by keeping a low profile ... He likely left the UK immediately before the bomb blasts, so as to ensure escape," consultancy group Janusian Security Risk Management said in an analysis for clients.
As police- who have been deluged with calls from relatives of the missing and eye witnesses of the blasts as well as still and video images from cell phones- appealed for more to come forward, several British newspapers identified more suspects.
One was described as an Egyptian chemistry student at Leeds University who had lived in the same area of the city as the bombers but who had disappeared days before the attack.
Another was described as a British-born operative of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network- accused of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States- who had arrived in the country by sea three weeks ago and left again hours before Thursday's blasts.
With Britain's Muslim leaders condemning the attacks and appealing for calm, heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles said Thursday's commemorations gave the country a chance to demonstrate its multiculturalism.
"If the United Kingdom's many communities can now show by their determination to work together that they can stamp out the wickedness which perpetrated these terrible crimes we will once more have set an example for history," he wrote in the Daily Mirror newspaper.
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