The Home Office raised the national security alert level to "critical", which indicates further attacks are expected imminently

Jul 1, 2007

GLASGOW, Scotland, July 1 (Reuters) - Britain is at "critical" risk of a terrorist attack, the government said, after police linked an attack on Glasgow airport to two failed car bombings in London.

Two men, one badly burned, were arrested in Glasgow on Saturday after a four-wheel-drive car was driven into the main door of the airport terminal where it burst into flames.

Six people were taken to hospital and the arrested man is in a critical condition. Two more people were arrested later on a motorway in northern England.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on Wednesday, convened a meeting of Britain's top security committee to discuss how he would deal with the first big test of his leadership.

The Home Office (interior ministry) raised the national security alert level to "critical", the highest ranking and one which indicates further attacks are expected imminently.

"I want all British people to be vigilant and want them to support the police and all the authorities.... I know the British people will stand together united, resolute and strong," Brown said.

The green Jeep Cherokee was driven at speed into the glass door to the airport terminal in Scotland's second city, 400 miles (600km) north of London, and was then engulfed in flames.

The attack, which the head of Scotland's administration described as a "terrorist incident", came barely 36 hours after police thwarted a possible al Qaeda plot in London in which two cars loaded with fuel, gas canisters and nails were left in the centre of the capital poised to detonate.

"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is linked to the events in London yesterday," the top police officer in the Glasgow area, Willie Rae, told reporters.

"There are clearly similarities and we can confirm that this is being treated as a terrorist incident."

Rae said the badly burnt man was found to have a "suspect device" hidden on his body. The hospital had to be evacuated briefly while the device was inspected.

Reacting to media reports that the device was a suicide belt, Strathclyde Police said on Sunday it was not believed to be an "improvised explosive device".

U.S. SECURITY TIGHTENED

Also on Sunday, London's Metropolitan Police said they had arrested two people "in connection with the events in London and Scotland on the 29th and 30th of June".

A caller to BBC television said he had been in a car in the county of Cheshire, on a motorway which links London with Glasgow, when traffic was brought to a halt by unmarked police cars in all three lanes.

The caller, named as Peter Whitehead, said he saw a woman in what he called Muslim dress and two men in suits step out of a car which had pulled to the side of the motorway. The Metropolitan Police said no further details of the arrests were available.

In July 2005 four British Islamists blew themselves up on London's transport system and killed 52 commuters.

In Glasgow, witnesses described those arrested as Asian men.

"It (the car) raced across the central reservation and went straight into the building," said taxi driver Ian Crosby outside the terminal. The airport was shut down following the incident.

In London, police scoured hours of CCTV footage and extra squads were deployed on the streets after the discovery in the early hours of Friday of a vehicle packed with up to 60 litres of fuel, several gas canisters and a large quantity of nails.

A mobile phone, which security experts believed might have been a detonation device, was left inside the fume-filled car.

A second Mercedes packed with gas and nails was later found to have been parked just a few hundred yards from the first.

Amid nationwide security fears authorities closed the airport in Liverpool, north-west England, on Saturday because of a suspect vehicle.

In Kennebunkport, Maine, the United States announced it was boosting security at airports nationwide, although the overall U.S. terrorism threat level would remain the same.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker, Mark Trevelyan and David Clarke)

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