Four men have pleaded guilty to a plot to attack the London Stock Exchange and target two rabbis at their homes.

The men appeared at Woolwich Crown Court with five other British Muslims and pleaded guilty to the plan to plant an improvised explosive device in the Exchange’s toilets.

The plot, was foiled in December 2010 in a large-scale anti-terror raid. Investigators found a handwritten target list at one of the defendant's homes. On it were the names and addresses of the rabbis, as well as Mayor Boris Johnson and the US Embassy.

The plotters held meetings planning the attacks, researched how to make bombs and scouted locations, but their movements were being monitored by police. One recording showed the men denying the Holocaust.

The men were said to be inspired by Anwar Al-Awlaki, the Yemeni preacher killed last year , whose sermons have also been said to have inspired Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the former UCL student who allegedly attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airline.

The defendants, Mohammed Chowdhury, 21; Shah Rahman, 28; Gurukanth Desai, 30; and Abdul Miah, 25, will be sentenced next week. Chowdhury is expected to be handed an 18 and a half year sentence.