Mass Murder Terror Plot

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http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...230417,00.html

Mass Murder Terror Plot'
Updated: 12:46, Thursday August 10, 2006



There is chaos at British airports after police disrupted a plot to cause "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" by blowing up transatlantic airliners.

The explosives would have been smuggled aboard at least six airliners as hand luggage - and could have been missed during x-ray screening.

Speaking at Scotland Yard, Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said he was confident the police had disrupted a plot "to cause mass murder on an unimaginable scale".

He said 21 people arrested in London, Birmingham and the Thames Valley were still being held - the culmination of a covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

The Home Secretary John Reid said the "main players" in the plot were in custody but cautioned against complacency.

Sky News' Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said those arrested were mainly young, British-born Asian men.

Another senior Met officer, Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, said the arrests followed "an unprecedented level of surveillance".

A number of business premises and houses have been sealed off by the police, including one in High Wycombe.

Security sources believe that liquid explosives would have been used which could have been mixed during the flight into a lethal concoction.

Sources in the United States have reported that three airlines targeted were United, American and Continental.

The Home Secretary John Reid said the official level of security - indicating public risk - had been raised from 'severe' to 'critical'.

The US government has also raised its threat assessment to the highest level for commercial flights from Britain to America.

Whitehall sources said the Prime Minister and President Bush had been in contact over the plot for some time.

Big queues were building up at UK airports as passengers trying to board international flights were not being allowed to carry on normal hand luggage.

All flights in and out of Heathrow were cancelled until 3pm - apart from those already in the air.

The British Airports Authority urged passengers not to travel unless absolutely necessary.

British Airways cancelled more than 200 flights from Heathrow while those to Britain operated by Lufthansa, Iberia, Olympic, KLM and Air France were also hit.

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all i can say is thank f they stopped it, if their intelligence is correct this time