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al-Qaeda planned UK attack
19/04/2003 13:52 - (SA)
London - The al-Qaeda network had planned to shoot down an airliner from a theme park close to London's Heathrow airport earlier this year, a British newspaper said on Saturday, quoting government sources.
Reacting to police intelligence, Britain's government had moved swiftly to thwart a terror plot in February, stationing thousands of military personnel and police around the world's busiest airport and other key London sites.
At the time the authorities would not reveal the exact nature of the threat, except to say that there were fears of a possible al-Qaeda attack coinciding with the Muslim festival of Eid.
But a government source told The Sun - Britain's biggest selling daily - that members of the terror network planned to break into Legoland while it was closed for the winter before carrying out the strike using a shoulder-fired missile.
"The intelligence services established there was a threat from elements connected to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network," the source said.
"Our people later learned that their plan included a break-in at Legoland to launch the missile. We believe the target was probably going to be a big passenger jet heading to Heathrow.
"Obviously they hoped to get in unnoticed, mount the assault and get away before anyone had realised where the missile had come from," the source added.
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