Police were convinced Jean Charles de Menezes was the right man, an inquest into his death has heard.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Cressida Dick, who was directing operations which led up to the shooting, said she had "no doubt" her officers had caught the right man.

She admitted that surveillance messages were "misinterpreted" in events leading up to the Brazilian electrician's death.

But she told his inquest how conflicting information led her to feel certain he was failed suicide bomber Hussain Osman.

When Ian Stern QC, representing the surveillance officers, asked if she was "satisfied that the suspect represented a real and immediate threat" and was "intent on causing that explosion", she replied: "Yes, sir."

Ms Dick said a fellow officer monitoring operations "clearly misinterpreted when he was assessing what they were saying."

She said: "There was a period when I was being told that the surveillance team thought this was not the suspect."

But Ms Dick was later told: "They think it's him."

She added: "I was in no doubt that he had been identified as Nettle Tip (police codename for Osman). I was told this by the surveillance team."

Ms Dick, who has faced three days of questioning during the inquest at the Oval cricket ground, south London, was in charge of the Scotland Yard control room overseeing the pursuit of the Brazilian.

She said it was too dangerous to challenge Mr de Menezes while he was still on the bus.

On Tuesday she was accused of giving "reckless" orders as events spiralled out of her control, but she rejected suggestions she was "sprinting to catch up" on the day of his death.

Mr de Menezes, 27, was killed by specialist firearms officers who mistook him for failed suicide bomber Osman after boarding a train at Stockwell Tube station on July 22 2005.

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