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Heathrow Airport is on high terror alert amid fears women suicide bombers are ready to strike with ­explosives concealed in breast implants. Security checks have been beefed up after “credible” intelligence that al-Qaeda is plotting attacks on airlines flying out of London. One staff member said: “There are genuine fears over this. 

“We have been told to pay particular attention to females who may have concealed hidden explosives in their breasts. “This is particularly difficult for us to pick up but we are on a very high state of alert. “It’s led to long queues here at Heathrow – much longer than usual at this time of the year. “But because it’s the summer holiday season, no one has complained.”

Al-Qaeda’s chief bomb-maker Ibrahim al-Asiri is understood to have developed the method of foiling airport scanners by concealing ­explosives in an implant or bodily cavity. It is also feared there is no shortage of ­volunteers willing to take part in an atrocity after hundreds of extremists recently escaped from prison in Pakistan. Explosives expert Andy Oppenheimer said: “There is a great fear that al-Qaeda are planning on using internal devices to try and get through airport scanners.

“These explosives could be in breast implants.”

Another specialist, who asked not to be named, said breast implant bombs could be set off by injecting another liquid. The expert added: “Both are very difficult to pick up with current technology and they are petrified al-Qaeda are a step ahead here. “It’s pretty top secret and potentially very grisly and ghastly.” Independent security analyst Paul Beaver said: “There are currently deeply serious concerns over body cavities and implants of all kinds – including breast implants – being used to hide explosives.

“It is taking longer to get through Heathrow and other airports in Europe and North America because of these fears. “They are taking longer to screen people and there is definitely some sort of profiling going on. “The general alert state remains the same in the UK but overseas, the recent Pakistan prison breakouts and foiled attacks in Yemen are raising fears of a new jihadist wave of violence.” Terrorists are believed to be plotting attacks with the explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate, or PETN.

It is also feared they may have ­developed an undetectable liquid explosive that could be soaked into clothing. For a suicide bomber sat in a window seat it would take only a relatively small blast to blow a lethal hole in a plane’s fuselage. Mr Beaver added: “The terrorist is getting clever, but so are detection methods. 

“The fact we know about the new methods suggests there are detection and counter-measure options. “Implant bombs are a one-way ticket anyway so the suicide bomber won’t care what the trigger might be. “It would have to be simple and straightforward – perhaps electrical.” A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “We don’t comment on specific security measures.”

Scans won’t detect them: Expert view by Philip Baum, Editor of Security International

The possibility of medically implanted explosives is a concern to the industry. There are two main ways of initiating a detonation – by chemical reaction or radio controlled detonators. The problem is another reason why we should be using behavioural analysis as the primary detection method to screen people at airports.

Body scanners are good at identifying things outside the body but not inside. Whether or not implants would make effective explosive devices in passenger planes is also questionable. The examples we have seen haven’t quite had the impact those behind them might have hoped for.