A uranium-contaminated shipment was reportedly intercepted at London’s Heathrow Airport.
According to London’s Metropolitan Police, “a very small amount of contaminated material” was identified by Border Force officers during a routine screening.
The interception was first reported by British tabloid The Sun. The Sun claims that the seizure of the “deadly shipment” originating in Pakistan and sent via Oman to an Iranian national in the UK, was as a foiled “nuke plot,” that prompted an investigation by the British counterterrorism police.
It is not clear however, whether the package was destined for a “dirty bomb” or simply the scrap heap.
The initial tabloid report set off a media frenzy in the United Kingdom, with a “former nuclear defense commander” quoted as saying that the material could have been “used in a dirty bomb,” and another “former army chief” as saying it could have been intended for use in an “assassination plot.”
The Daily Mail claimed that investigators are following the “dirty bomb” version, while the Daily Express described the incident as “a dry run” for an actual bomb plot, citing an anonymous “security expert.”
However, the BBC reported that the uranium was found in a shipment of “scrap metal,” and that it could have ended up there as a result of “poor handling.”
Commander Richard Smith of the Met’s counterterrorism department said that the package “does not appear to be linked to any direct threat,” and “has been assessed by experts as posing no threat to the public.”
According to Smith, there is no evidence to any of the wild claims by the national tabloids, and that the only thing the incident proved is that the screening process at London’s Heathrow airport worked exactly as it should.
