Suicide bombers tried to blow up Glasgow Airport by driving a blazing car bomb into the terminal building. Two Asian men ploughed the Jeep Cherokee 4x4 at high speed into the airport's main entrance, but it failed to explode. Security guards, initially believing the car had been involved in a straightforward accident, grabbed fire extinguishers and tried to put out the flames. But one of the men, both in their 30s, leapt out and attacked the guard, screaming at him that a bomb was about to go off. Panicked and confused passengers ran for safety as police and members of the public wrestled the men to the ground.
One of the men soaked himself in petrol, set himself alight and ran into the main terminal area, carrying petrol cans. The flames were extinguished by an airport worker, but even though the would-be terrorist's clothes were practically burnt off him, he started fighting with police officers and passers-by. Both men were eventually pinned down, handcuffed and led away.
The man who set himself alight was being treated at Royal Alexandria Hospital in Paisley, while the other man was being held at Govan high-security police station.
The horror unfolded as Britain faced its biggest security alert since the July 2005 outrages, following the discovery of two car bombs in Central London on Friday. Although the London and Glasgow incidents have not been officially linked, it emerged that the Mercedes used in the thwarted attack on the capital's Tiger Tiger nightclub had been in Scotland just two days earlier.
A Whitehall security source said: "MI5 and the police are investigating the possibility that the Glasgow attack and the London bombs were connected but so far there is no firm evidence of this."
However, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, former head of Britain's Joint Intelligence Committee, told Sky News: "One has to conclude...these are linked. And we may yet see further attacks." (Sky News)