A new strain of swine flu that experts fear could become a pandemic AP

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SWINE flu is already in London and is set to spread through the capital’s overcrowded Underground system, experts warned today.

The killer virus has already claimed 152 lives in Mexico as world health experts race against the clock to stop a pandemic.

Professor Peter Openshaw said swine flu had already infected Londoners even though they may not yet have developed symptoms.

And he warned that the capital should brace itself for bad news during the next seven days.

Prof Openshaw, director of the centre for respiratory infection at Imperial College London, said: “Our assumption is that there are people already carrying the virus in London, but they just do not know it yet. There will be more infections here.

“The sheer number of people travelling through London means that we will, inevitably, bear the brunt of any outbreak in Britain. The key uncertainty is how severe the infections will be.”

His assessment came as World Health Organisation (WHO) figures suggested that four in ten people in Britain would be hit by the virus.

"The sheer number of people travelling through London means that we will, inevitably, bear the brunt of any outbreak in Britain"

And London’s transport system has been identified as a major potential breeding ground for swine flu.

More than 3.4 million journeys take place on the Tube every weekday and it provides “the ideal environment” for a virus to spread, according to virology expert Professor Nigel Dimmock, from Warwick University.

He warned: “Swine flu can be passed on by just talking to someone else, you don't even have to be in that close proximity to someone.

“And in somewhere like London where you have millions of people all crushed together on a tube every day, it would become a breeding ground.”

Gordon Brown today chaired a meeting of Britain’s Cobra team - which only meets when Britain is facing a major alert - to draw up a blueprint to tackle the outbreak.

Meanwhile, newlyweds Iain and Dawn Askham, of Polmont, near Falkirk were confirmed as the first British people to be hit with the virus.

The pair, who went to Mexico on honeymoon, are being treated at a hospital in Airdrie, east of Glasgow where they are said to be “recovering well”.

Askham’s father, Brian Colston, said: “They’re doing OK, they’re getting better.”