Police continue to hold suspects over failed car bombings

Police are continuing to question six suspects in the UK, held in connection with the failed car bombings in London and Glasgow.

Meanwhile it has emerged that some of the suspects were known to MI5 before the attacks took place. However, according to reports, the known suspects were regarded as low priority.

The first attempted bombings took place in London on Friday. They involved two Mercedes cars, containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails, which were found in London's West End - one outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in The Haymarket and the other in a nearby street. The devices were defused.

The following day, a blazing Jeep Cherokee, loaded with gas cylinders, crashed into the doors of the main terminal at Glasgow airport.

Six suspects are being questioned at London's high security Paddington Green police station. Among them are Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah, 27, who works at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley and Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, from Jordan, who worked at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust.

The other suspects are a 27-year-old woman, believed to be Dr Asha's wife and a former lab technician; a 26-year-old man who was arrested in Liverpool and two men, aged 25 and 28 and believed to be trainee doctors, who were arrested in Paisley.

A seventh man who suffered serious burns in the Glasgow attack remains in the Royal Alexandra Hospital under armed guard. He is understood to be in a critical condition.

An eighth man, Dr Mohammed Haneef, is being questioned in Australia after being arrested at Brisbane airport.

Dr Haneef, an Indian national who worked as a doctor at the Gold Coast Hospital in Southport, eastern Queensland, was detained at the airport at the request of Britain as he reportedly tried to leave the country on a one-way ticket to India.

It is understood that a counter-terrorism officer from the Metropolitan Police is being sent to Australia.

A second doctor, who was also being questioned in Australia, has been released without charge.

All those arrested are understood to have had links to the NHS.

Two men arrested under the Terrorism Act in Blackburn on Tuesday are understood to have been charged with drugs offences.

The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre is understood to be considering relaxing the terror threat level from 'critical' - meaning that an attack is expected imminently - to 'severe'.

On Wednesday it was announced that an immediate review of how NHS doctors are recruited from overseas, following the attacks.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the review at his first Prime Minister's Question Time, since taking over from Tony Blair last week.

Meanwhile, Canon Andrew White, a British cleric working in Baghdad, has spoken of his conversation with a senior al-Qaeda figure in Iraq, who may have provided a hint of the London and Glasgow attacks two months ago.

Canon White said that the man, whom he referred to as "the Devil", spoke of planned attacks in both Britain and the US and said: "those who cure you will kill you".

Anyone with any information is asked to contact the Anti-Terrorism hotline on: 0800 789 321.

(KMcA)