Luck saved travelers from June 2007 terror strike at Glasgow Airport

London, Oct.10 : Luck played a huge and significant role in saving hundreds of travellers at Glasgow Airport in June 2007 from an attempted terror strike by Indian-born medics Dr. Bilal Abdullah and Dr. Kafeel Ahmed, investigators have told a jury here on Thursday.

Islamist extremists tried to set off a suicide blast by driving a jeep into the main terminal building on the busiest day of the year, a jury heard. The vehicle, which was packed with gas canisters and fuel containers, caught fire but was stuck in the doors of the terminal and failed to explode.

The Sun quoted prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw , as saying: "It was simply luck that protected the people of Scotland."

It was alleged Dr Bilal Abdulla, 29, a junior house doctor at the oyal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, who lived in Houston, Renfrewshire, and Dr. Mohammed Asha, 27, were behind the attack hours after they botched two car bombs in London.

"These two were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale," Laidlaw claimed.

It was alleged that Kafeel Ahmed, who suffered fatal burns on the attack in Glasgow, was the third man in the terror cell.

Laidlaw claimed the terrorists launched the airport attack on June 30 last year knowing they had only a limited time before they were caught following the failed London bombings.

Laidlaw alleged that Abdulla, who was arrested at the airport, had been in the passenger seat and had sprayed petrol around the inside of the vehicle.

He added: "Material found in their possession after their arrests reveals they both hold or adhere to extreme Islamic belief and that both share, despite their profession and their obligation to save life and avert suffering, the same extreme religious and murderous ideology as has inspired other terrorists who have struck and threatened this country in recent years."

Abdulla and Asha deny conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life. The trial continues.

ANI