Uk alert on possible homemade nuke bomb attack

London: Britain faces an increased threat of a nuclear attack by Al Qaida terrorists following a rise in the trafficking of radiological material, a government report has warned.

Bomb-makers who have been active in Afghanistan might already have the ability to produce a "dirty bomb" using knowledge acquired over the internet.

It is feared that terrorists could transport an improvised nuclear device up the Thames and detonate it in the heart of London. Bristol, Liverpool Newcastle, Glasgow and Belfast are also thought to be vulnerable. Lord West, the Security Minister, also raised the possibility of terrorists using small craft to enter port cities and launch an attack similar to that in Mumbai in 2008.

The government is so concerned about the threat that it is setting up a command centre to track suspicious boats. The terrorism threat level was raised from "substantial" to "severe" in January in the wake of the failed attempt to blow up an aircraft over Detroit on Christmas Day.

Reviews

Three separate reviews of the country's ability to prevent a major terrorist attack were published simultaneously on Monday, before an international meeting on nuclear security in Washington next month.

Downing Street released an update to the National Security Strategy in which it stated that "the UK does face nuclear threats now" and added that there was "the possibility that nuclear weapons or nuclear material [could] fall into the hands of rogue states or terrorist groups".

The International Atomic Energy Authority recorded 1,562 incidents where nuclear material was lost or stolen between 1993 and 2008, mostly in the former Soviet Union, and 65 per cent of the losses were never recovered.