Airport security: mobile phone checks stepped up

Passengers face more stringent mobile phone checks at airports amid fears of an al-Qaeda plot

An armed officer patrols Heathrow Airport
(Image credit: Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

Security in UK airports is being stepped up amid fears that an al-Qaeda "master bombmaker" has trained European jihadists to become suicide bombers. Mobile phones and other devices are coming under particular scrutiny, with passengers on all flights to the US and several other unnamed routes being required to prove that their electronic equipment can be switched on.

The alert was raised at the weekend, when US authorities alleged that Ibrahim Hassan Tali al-Asiri has been developing explosives that can be smuggled onto planes and spreading his expertise to foreign fighters in Syria.

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