Security has been beefed up after intelligence
al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on airlines flying out of London Heathrow Airport
is on high terror alert amid fears women suicide bombers are ready to strike
with explosives concealed in breast implants.
Security checks have been beefed up after “credible”
intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on airlines flying out of
London.
One staff member said: “There are genuine fears over
this.
"We have been told to pay particular attention
to females who may have concealed hidden explosives in their breasts.
“This is particularly difficult for us to pick up
but we are on a very high state of alert.
“It’s led to long queues here at Heathrow – much
longer than usual at this time of the year.
“But because it’s the summer holiday season, no one
has complained.”
Al-Qaeda’s chief bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is
understood to have developed the method of foiling airport scanners by
concealing explosives in an implant or bodily cavity.
It is also feared there is no shortage of volunteers
willing to take part in an atrocity after hundreds of extremists recently
escaped from prison in Pakistan.
Explosives expert Andy Oppenheimer said: “There is a
great fear that al-Qaeda are planning on using internal devices to try and get
through airport scanners.
"These explosives could be in breast implants.”
Another specialist, who asked not to be named, said
breast implant bombs could be set off by injecting another liquid.
The expert added: “Both are very difficult to pick
up with current technology and they are petrified al-Qaeda are a step ahead
here.
“It’s pretty top secret and potentially very grisly
and ghastly.”
Independent security analyst Paul Beaver said:
“There are currently deeply serious concerns over body cavities and implants of
all kinds – including breast implants – being used to hide explosives.
"It is taking longer to get through Heathrow
and other airports in Europe and North America because of these fears.
“They are taking longer to screen people and there
is definitely some sort of profiling going on.
“The general alert state remains the same in the UK
but overseas, the recent Pakistan prison breakouts and foiled attacks in Yemen
are raising fears of a new jihadist wave of violence.”
Terrorists are believed to be plotting attacks with
the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.
It is also feared they may have developed an
undetectable liquid explosive that could be soaked into clothing.
For a suicide bomber sat in a window seat it would
take only a relatively small blast to blow a lethal hole in a plane’s fuselage.
Mr Beaver added: “The terrorist is getting clever,
but so are detection methods.
“The fact we know about the new methods suggests
there are detection and counter-measure options.
“Implant bombs are a one-way ticket anyway so the
suicide bomber won’t care what the trigger might be.
"It would have to be simple and straightforward
– perhaps electrical.”
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