Guardian OnlineBy Mark Trevelyan and Luke Baker
London - A four-wheel-drive vehicle crashed into the main terminal at Glasgow airport on Saturday and exploded in flames, a day after police foiled a possible al-Qaeda plot to detonate two car bombs in central London.
A witness in Glasgow told Sky News that an Asian man who had been inside the vehicle scuffled with police immediately after the incident, was wrestled to the ground and detained.
Another witness said a second man, also Asian, was on fire following the blaze and badly burnt.
"There was chaos at the airport," said witness James Edgar. "Suddenly everyone said to get out of the airport."
BAA, which manages the airport, was not immediately available to comment.
In London, police scoured hours of CCTV footage and extra squads were deployed on the streets, particularly around landmarks such as the Houses of Parliament, but tourists and Londoners appeared largely unperturbed, going about their business as usual.
An intensive counter-terrorism investigation was launched after the discovery in the early hours of Friday of a metallic green Mercedes packed with up to 60 litres of fuel, several gas canisters and a large quantity of nails.
The vehicle was parked outside the Tiger Tiger night club in the busy theatreland district of London, and aroused suspicion only after ambulance workers, treating someone else, thought they had noticed smoke inside the vehicle.
A cellphone, 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.
Police said the two vehicles were clearly linked. Both bombs were quickly defused but, had they gone off, would have caused significant injuries and deaths, police said.
The thwarted bomb plot came to light two years after a coordinated attack by suicide bombers on London's transport system killed 52 commuters. It appeared to have similarities to an earlier plot in which an al-Qaeda militant planned to blow up gas-filled bombs inside limousines in London.
Plans for policing of public events in the coming 10 days were reviewed to ensure public security, including a Gay Pride parade in London on Saturday, the Wimbledon tennis tournament and a concert for Princess Diana on Sunday.
"Appropriate policing will be in place for all events," a police spokesperson said. "Safety and security is our number one priority."
Despite the continuing threat, tourists were stoical.
"You could be safe anywhere or you could be safe nowhere. It hasn't put me off travelling here," said Ivonne Geller, 49, a tourist from Mexico strolling outside the Tiger Tiger club.
"I just feel angry about the methods of these people who try to harm innocent people."
Intelligence sources believe there is a growing probability that the plot was hatched by an al Qaeda-style group.
"The feeling it is Islamist, rather than the other possibilities, is very quietly growing stronger," a source said.
The area of London where the car bombs were left, known as Haymarket, is one of the busiest in the capital and one of the most intensely monitored by CCTV surveillance.
Police said they were studying hundreds of hours of footage in the hunt for possible suspects. The US television channel ABC reported that a "crystal clear" image of a suspect had been found, but British police would not confirm that.
I live in Glasgow. I've not seen any reports on Injuries.The Guardian wrote:2 Men in Flaming Car Ram Glasgow Airport
Saturday June 30, 2007 5:31 PM
AP Photo LON815, BSD103, LMN103
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) - Two men rammed a flaming sport utility vehicle into the main terminal of Glasgow airport Saturday, crashing into the glass doors at the entrance and sparking a fire, witnesses said. Police said two suspects were arrested.
The green SUV barreled toward the building at full speed before crashing into security barriers. Witnesses said two men jumped out, one of them engulfed in flames. Two men were arrested, Strathclyde Police spokeswoman Lisa O'Neil said.
The airport - Scotland's largest - was evacuated and flights suspended. Smoke and black flames rose from the car in front of the main entrance.
``The Jeep is completely on fire and it exploded not long after. It exploded at the entrance to the terminal,'' witness Stephen Clarkson told the BBC. ``It may have been an explosion of petrol in the tank because it was not a massive explosion.''
Two men - one of them engulfed in flames - were in the SUV, said BBC News executive Helen Boaden, who was at the airport. She said a traveler tried to restrain the man.
``Then the police came over and wrestled him to the ground - the fire was burning through his clothes - and finally put him out with a fire extinguisher,'' she said.
