London police expressed concern about leak of bomb photos

London's police chief Ian Blair said Thursday he was concerned that images of unexploded bombs seized in connection with the attacks on London had been leaked to ABC News, the U.S. television network.

The images, obtained by ABC News, were splashed across newspaper front pages in Britain Thursday, despite a Metropolitan Police appeal urging the media "in the strongest possible terms" not to run them.

Ian Blair said he was worried that colleagues in other countries to whom the force had entrusted information about the bomb investigation had leaked the pictures, reports the AP.

"I'm very concerned," he said.

There have been concerns that such images could compromise any future trial of anyone arrested over the bombings. No one is being held in relation to the July 7 attacks.

ABC ran the bomb pictures Wednesday, along with photos of the mangled interiors of subway cars destroyed in the July 7 attacks that killed 56 people - including the four men thought to have detonated the bombs.

The most widely reproduced image showed an X-ray of a bottle-shaped bomb, studded with nails, reportedly found in the trunk of the car driven by one of the suspected suicide bombers at Luton train station, 50 kilometers (30 miles) from London, five days after the explosions.

The London police force said there was little it could do about the publication.

ABC News reported that British authorities had found 12 bombs and four improvised detonators in the car. The Metropolitan Police would not comment on the claim.