London, Dec. 31 (ANI): British Ministers have been accused of putting lives at risk by failing to order X-ray style body scanners at British airports despite fears that al-Qaeda is planning a wave of syringe bomb attacks on planes.

The scanners, which could have thwarted the attack by the Detroit bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, are already in use in countries, including America and Germany, and yesterday the Netherlands and Nigeria announced they would follow suit.But the Government said it had “no immediate plans” to deploy them, leading to accusations that ministers had been “caught napping”.

The Daily Telegraph has learned that four of the 100,000-pound full body scanners are in storage at Heathrow Airport, following a previous trial, but airport staff are not authorised to use them.The X-ray type scanners can see through the clothing of passengers and detect hidden explosives, which are invisible to the current, conventional metal detector scanners. (ANI)