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Detectives 'find airport bomber's suicide note'

DETECTIVES investigating the terror attack on Glasgow airport are said to have found a suicide note written by one of the men who drove the blazing Jeep into the front of the building.

Reports claimed the note indicated the men intended to detonate an explosive device in the Jeep while still inside the vehicle.

In the event, the attack on Saturday afternoon did not go to plan.

The driver of the Jeep, Khalid Ahmed, is now being treated for 90 per cent burns and the other man, Bilal Abdullah, has been transferred to London for questioning.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said police would not comment on anything that had been recovered as part of the investigation.

Eight suspects have been arrested since the Glasgow airport attack and the two failed car bombs discovered in central London the day before, all of them connected with the NHS.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith last night announced Britain's terror threat level was being reduced from critical to severe, indicating the threat of a further terrorist attack is no longer imminent.

Ms Smith said: "There is no intelligence to suggest that an attack is expected imminently. However, the reduction of the threat level to severe does not mean the overall threat has gone away."

The reduction in the terror threat level came after Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a review of how NHS doctors are recruited from overseas.

Mr Brown also pledged fresh steps to counter terrorism, including the expansion worldwide of a "watch list" of potential terrorists.

Police are still questioning six of the arrested suspects - five doctors and a female laboratory researcher - at London's Paddington Green police station.

Among them is Dr Sabeel Ahmed, 26, who was arrested in Liverpool on Saturday. Dr Ahmed studied at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, in Bangalore, India, where his family said he was innocent, with no links to terrorism.

It emerged today that he is a relative and childhood friend of Dr Mohammed Haneef, 27, who studied at the same university and who is now being held in Brisbane, Australia, after he was stopped as he attempted to fly to India by police acting on a tip-off from their UK colleagues. His mother said he was travelling home to see his newborn baby daughter. Speaking in Bangalore, she said: "He has been detained unnecessarily. He is innocent."

A British counterterrorism expert arrived in Brisbane today to question the doctor.

Police have until late today to charge Dr Haneef, release him or seek a detention extension.

It was suggested today the terrorist cell responsible for the Glasgow and London attacks may have been formed in Cambridge two years ago after it emerged two of the suspects had links to the city's Addenbrooke's hospital.

Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, who was arrested with his wife on the M6 motorway, worked on placement at the hospital.

And Dr Abdullah, the passenger in the Jeep, also lived in the city and worked at the hospital on placement.

Related topic

• Terrorism in the UK
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Last updated: 05-Jul-07 11:06 GMT