New York mayor Michael Bloomberg has apologised to a group of British tourists who were frogmarched off a sightseeing bus and forced to kneel on the pavement with their hands behind their heads. The double-decker bus was evacuated and swarmed with armed police when a bus worker became suspicious of the group of Britons. The five men were handcuffed behind their backs before shocked onlookers near Times Square. Other passengers were ordered to walk off the bus with their hands in the air while their bags were searched. No threat "It turned out that these people did not present any threat whatsoever," Mayor Bloomberg said. "It's a shame, and I certainly apologise on behalf of the City of New York. We love tourists and we want them to keep coming here and feel that they can go around and enjoy the city." The five Britons are all members of the Sikh religion and grew up together in Birmingham, according to reports. They left the city after the incident on Sunday to continue their US trip. One, named as Jas, 39, said it had not spoiled their visit. "No hard feelings" "These things happen, don't they?" he told the New York Daily News. "We have no hard feelings. It certainly made our trip different, but didn't ruin it at all. I'm definitely coming back." New Yorkers have been urged to report anything suspicious to police in the wake of the London bombings. But the mayor sounded a note of caution, warning them to use "common sense" and avoid pigeon-holing people like the group of South Asian-looking Britons. He defended the police response to the incident, adding: "They clearly had a show of force, which probably doesn't make good reading in the paper, but the police, I think, probably didn't have any option based on what the tour operator reported." The NYPD has begun random bag searches in underground stations and on buses, airport-bound trains and ferries since the second wave of blasts in London. Officers have been instructed to search people in numerical order as they approach station turnstiles rather than basing the searches on personal appearance.
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