Death toll rises to 56 as more victims are identified

Police said the number of dead had risen after further investigations into the blast at King's Cross and a "clarification" of the numbers involved. Four are the bombers. Police are still digging at the site of the King's Cross blast and have not ruled out finding more bodies.

Scotland Yard said the identification process was almost complete, and the remaining seven names would probably be released in the next two days. The final inquests will be opened and adjourned today and tomorrow.

Inquests into the deaths of seven of the victims were opened and adjourned yesterday at St Pancras coroner's court. Four of the inquests were on victims of the Piccadilly line explosion: Karolina Gluck, 29, an administrative worker from Finsbury Park, north London; Rachelle Yuen, 27, an accountant from Mill Hill, originally from Mauritius; Helen Jones, 28, an accountant from Holloway, and Christian Small, an advertising worker, from Walthamstow, east London. The coroner gave permission for the full inquest into the death of Ms Jones, formerly from Lockerbie, to be held in Scotland.

The coroner also opened inquests into the deaths of two people in the Piccadilly line explosion who have already been named:James Adams, 32, from Peterborough, and Monika Suchocka, 23, from Poland, living in Archway. Ms Suchocka was originally feared to have died in the bus blast in Tavistock Square.

The seventh inquest was into the death of Fiona Stevenson, 29, from Little Baddow, Essex, a solicitor living in central London who died in the Aldgate blast.

The five other names released were: Emily Rose Jenkins, 24, a midwife, from Kew, south-west London, and Shelley Marie Mather, 26, from New Zealand, who died in the Piccadilly line explosion; Benedetta Ciaccia, 30, a publishing executive from Italy, living in Norwich, and Carrie Taylor, 24, from Billericay, Essex, who worked for the Royal Society of Arts, who died in the Aldgate explosion; and Sam Ly, from Australia, who died after being caught in the bus explosion.