British airports on alert over fears that terrorists are plotting attack using ‘human bombs’

Al-Qaeda’s top bomb-maker is working on a device that can evade scanners and be hidden inside a terrorist’s body or electronic gadgets

British airports are on terror alert over fears that fanatics from Yemen and Syria have joined forces to plot a “stealth” bomb attack.

Al-Qaeda’s top bomb maker Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri is working on a device that can evade scanners and be hidden inside a terrorist’s body or electronic gadgets.

His Yemen-based team are feared to have made the ‘human bombs’ after linking up with jihadis in Syria where hundreds of Britons are among thousands of Western Muslims waging war on dictator Bashar al Assad.

Security chiefs fear would-be bombers equipped with European passports are being groomed to slip out of the country and use the deadly new technology to blow a plane out of the sky.

Holidaymakers could face a summer of chaos and delays as extra security checks are carried out in a bid to thwart them.

Passengers were urged to be patient and Nick Clegg warned that the extra precautions could be here to stay.

The Deputy PM said: “I don’t think we should expect this to be a one-off temporary thing. We have to make sure the checks are there to meet the nature of the new kinds of threats.

“Whether it is forever – I can’t make any predictions. But I don’t want people to think that this is just a sort of a blip for a week.

“This is part of an evolving and constant review about whether the checks keep up with the nature of the threats we face.”