'Bomber' worked at Heathrow

2003-05-02 16:29

London - Assif Mohammed Hanif, a British subject who blew himself up in a bomb attack in Israel on Wednesday, worked for two years at London's Heathrow Airport, the British Airports Authority (BAA) said on Friday.

A spokesperson for BAA's Alpha Retail company said Hanif, who killed three people in addition to himself when he detonated his bomb at a beachfront cafe in Tel Aviv, sold newspapers at the airport from August 1998 to December 2000.

As an employee at the airport Hanif would have had access to boarding zones at Heathrow's Terminal Three, where he worked, spokesperson Steve Buckley said.

Both Hanif and a second man sought in relation with the Tel Aviv attack were British passport holders, a factor which may have made it easier for them to enter Israel.

The second man, Omar Khan Sharif, was still being sought on Friday.

He was said to have been about to set off another bomb but ditched it at the last minute, and escaped after his compatriot blew himself up. - Sapa-AFP

- SAPA