Dirty bomb 'plot' foiled

2004-09-26 15:36

London - Police gained more time on Sunday to question four terror suspects arrested after a newspaper claimed it had foiled a "dirty bomb" plot.

London's metropolitan police said a magistrate approved an application to hold the four men until Ocober 1.

The men were detained on Friday under the Terrorism Act on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

Under the legislation, any detention period longer than two days must be approved by a magistrate.

Police may get extensions to question suspects for up to 14 days before they must be charged or released.

Officers said three men were arrested on Friday at a hotel at Brent Cross in north London and a fourth man was arrested later at his home.

News of the World

Police said they were acting on information supplied by the News of the World, the Sunday tabloid which is Britain's largest-selling newspaper.

The newspaper said reporter Mazher Mahmood had been in touch with a man who said he represented someone from Saudi Arabia who was seeking to purchase red mercury, a substance that many scientists doubt actually exists.

The reporter said he was told that the unidentified Saudi was willing to pay £300 000 for 1kg of the substance.

Police declined to comment on the News of the World account.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, black marketeers have been peddling substances they call red mercury, apparently passing it off to buyers as a highly radioactive compound purportedly developed in Soviet nuclear facilities.

Samples that have turned up in Europe have proved to be bogus, however, and many scientists and law enforcement officials say the substance does not exist - or is far less dangerous than it has been made out to be.

- AP