London searches after terror attack

Dec 26 2009

A British-based student is at the centre of a major terror investigation on both sides of the Atlantic after a failed attempt to blow up a US airliner.

As police searched a sought-after property in London, a millionaire Nigerian said he feared his son was the man arrested after the incident at Detroit airport in America on Friday.

Earlier, US law enforcement officials identified the suspect as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, 23, who sources said had been an engineering student at University College London (UCL).

On Saturday, Alhaji Umaru Mutallab, a former minister and chairman of First Bank in Nigeria, confirmed his son Umar had studied in London before going travelling.

He said he was not sure of his son's whereabouts but that he had not lived in London "for some time".

Security officials have yet to confirm that Mr Mutallab's son is the man arrested and a UCL spokesman would say only that a man named Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had finished three years reading engineering at the institution last year.

British security officials are working closely with their counterparts in the US, Holland, Nigeria and Yemen to try to find out how the suspect allegedly came so close to causing catastrophe on Christmas Day.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would take "whatever action was necessary" while intelligence and anti-terrorism officials in Yemen were also investigating claims by the suspect that he picked up the explosive device and instructions on how to use it in that country.

Mr Mutallab said he travelled from his home in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated north to meet officials in Abuja, the capital. He said of his son: "I believe he might have been to Yemen, but we are investigating to determine that."

The father and several relatives were listed as living at an address in Mansfield Street, W1, which is a short distance from UCL and was being searched by police. The Met said it was searching several address in "central London" throughout the day.