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Airport security is being stepped up in the UK amid fears that groups linked to Islamic terrorists have developed bombs to smuggle onto aircraft.
The BBC reported that the UK is among the overseas countries agreeing to implement ‘enhanced security measures’ in upcoming days.
Reports in the US claim that groups affiliated to al-Qaeda in Syria and Yemen are developing devices to attack commercial flights heading to the country.
It has been reported these groups have collaborated on devices that can’t be detected by airport security.
No details have been made public specifically about what is behind the security scare or how long the additional measures will be implemented for.
A spokesman for the UK Department for Transport told the BBC a decision had been taken to “step up some of our aviation security measures”.
“For obvious reasons we will not be commenting in detail on those changes. The majority of passengers should not experience significant disruption.”
US Department of Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson said: “We will work to ensure these necessary steps pose as few disruptions to travellers as possible.
“We are sharing recent and relevant information with our foreign allies and are consulting the aviation industry.”
The Guardian said the tightened security measures “could include increased random screening of passengers and tighter scrutiny of footwear, mobile phones and computers”.
It added that a DfT spokesman said the changes would not cause significant disruption to passengers and the threat level remained at substantial, meaning an attack was a strong possibility.