'Bomb plotter' quizzed in Belgium

BBC

Police in Belgium are questioning an Iranian man who claims to be involved in a plot to blow up an airliner.

The man - whose name has not been released - turned himself in last week.

He said he had been asked by a stranger to blow up a passenger flight from Charleroi, southern Belgium, to Dublin, Ireland, using liquid explosives.

No explosives were found during a search of the man's luggage to corroborate his story, the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said.

"Of course we take these things seriously, we have to check [but] we have absolutely nothing to corroborate what he said," the office's spokeswoman, Lieve Pellens, said.

The man - believed to be in his 40s - described himself as a businessman.

He was turned himself in to police on 27 September at Charleroi airport.

He told police he had been approached by a stranger who asked him to blow up the plane, but said he refused to do so.

A court in Charleroi ordered the man to be held on suspicion of preparing an attack.

The prosecutor's office said psychiatrists were examining the man.

In August, the authorities in Britain grounded all flights after police said they had uncovered a plot to blow up flights with liquid explosives hidden in drink bottles.