DRAMATIC CCTV footage of the panic and chaos at Glasgow airport in the dramatic moments after two men tried to ram a Jeep Cherokee into the international terminal was shown to a jury today.
Woolwich Crown Court was shown pictures of the Jeep, packed with gas canisters and fuel containers, as it crashed into the terminal doors on its busiest day of the year before becoming engulfed in flames.
Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said the car,
driven by Kafeel Ahmed, 28, with Bilal Abdulla, 29, in the passenger seat, was being used in a suicide attack after the men's attempt to carry out car bombings in central London the day before failed.
Despite repeated attempts to batter their way into the terminal, the Jeep became trapped so the men tried to set it alight using petrol bombs, the court heard.
Mr Laidlaw said there was pandemonium inside the terminal with children screaming and some people being knocked down.
"For those present it must have been the most terrifying of experiences," he said.
"It is clear that having failed to detonate the vehicles in London they were prepared to do literally anything to achieve an explosion which was bound ... to result in them losing their lives."
Abdulla was apprehended after a violent struggle while Ahmed later died from burns he suffered as he tried to set the car alight, the court was told.
A burnt laptop was found in the jeep which contained what appeared to be a draft of Abdulla's will.
This was addressed to the leaders of jihad in Iraq, to Osama bin Laden, and to the "soldiers of jihad" in Iraq, Afghanistan Chechnya and the Palestinian territories.
It also had clips of attacks on American troops and excerpts of bin Laden's speeches, the prosecution said.
Earlier today the court heard how Abdulla and Ahmed escaped in rickshaws after their attempted car bombs in London failed to explode.
Abdulla is standing trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life.
Abdulla and Asha, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, are both doctors who have worked in NHS hospitals around the country.
They both deny the charges.
The trial continues.
The full article contains 375 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
