Nigerian arrested over US plane attack quizzed

By John Abayomi, Deputy Online Editor, with agency reports

Three  days after a parcel bomb explosion rocked a 9-story building housing Super Screen TV in  Lagos, another Nigerian is in the eye of the storm in the US over a failed attempt to blow up  a Detroit bound plane.

Already, security operatives in the US  have commenced investigations into the terror attack aboard a trans-Atlantic Northwest Airlines flight by Farouk  Umar Abdul Mutallab, a 23year old Nigerian.

The said terror attack was carried out when Mutallab tried to ignite an explosive device , described by the  American security officials as a mixture of powder and liquid, but which however failed to fully detonate. Mutalab was overpowered by  some of  the 278 passengers  and crew on board.

The young man was reported to have suffered  three-degrees burn on his legs during the explosion resulting from the mixture of explosive powder taped to his leg and mixed  with chemicals  using a  syringe .

Already, Investigation has commenced into the incidence in the US, London and Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Reports say that the Dutch counter-terrorism agency, NCTb  said the man boarded a KLM flight from Lagos to Amsterdam, where he then connected to the Detroit bound flight.

In London, Police are searching the home where Mutallab was suspected to have lived with unconfirmed reports saying  while  studying in a London university.

Mutallab had earlier claimed he had links to al-Qaeda and had received the explosives in Yemen, a claim investigators   networking  with counter parts in the UK and Europe are working hard to unravel.

University of Michigan Hospital where Mutallab is being treated for burns. AFP.

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