Glasgow attack linked to London car bombs

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"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is
linked to the events in London yesterday," the chief constable 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."

GLASGOW (Reuters) - Two men rammed a petrol-filled, four-wheel-drive
vehicle into Glasgow airport on Saturday in what police called a
terrorist attack linked to a car-bomb plot foiled in London the
previous day.

"I can confirm that we believe the incident at Glasgow airport is
linked to the events in London yesterday," the chief constable 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 vehicle, a green Jeep Cherokee, was driven at speed
into the main, glass door entrance to the airport terminal and then
exploded in flames. Two men were arrested after the attack, one of whom
was taken to hospital in critical condition.

Rae said the badly
burnt man was found to have a "suspect device" hidden on his body, but
he would not confirm it was a suicide vest. The hospital briefly had to
be evacuated while the device was inspected.

The attack, which
Scotland's first minister 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 on a busy street in the centre of the capital poised to detonate.

The
Home Office announced it had raised the national security alert level
to "critical", the highest ranking and one which indicates further
attacks are expected imminently.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in
office for just four days and already facing a series of security
threats, convened a meeting of Britain's top security committee.

Afterwards
he said: "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."

After Saturday's attack, security sources cautioned about further incidents.

There are "people out there who've got the capability and the intent to launch further attacks", a security source said.

Security
personnel at sites such as rail terminals, airports, stadiums and
shopping centres would be looking to step up protection as a result of
the raised alert, he said.

U.S. SECURITY TIGHTENED

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.

In Glasgow, where one member
of the public was injured trying to wrestle the two suspects to the
ground, witnesses described those arrested as Asian men and said the
car had charged furiously towards the airport entrance.

"It raced
across the central reservation and went straight into the building,"
said taxi driver Ian Crosby outside the terminal, who said a stocky
Asian man had got out of the car and was quickly wrestled to the ground
by bystanders.

Another witness said the occupants had got out of
the vehicle after they crashed it into the building and taken out cans
of petrol that they then used to douse the car, before it went up in
flames.

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 Friday's scare.

An
intensive counter-terrorism investigation was launched after the
discovery in the early hours of Friday of the 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.

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 foiled 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 and another where a major
night club was one of a range of targets.