Glasgow Airport terror suspect dies of burns

Kafeel Ahmed suffered 90 per cent burns to his body after dousing himself and the vehicle with petrol and then igniting it.

Still burning, he then attempted to remove canisters of gas concealed in the car's boot.

He was detained by police at the scene and had spent more than a month in a Glasgow hospital under armed guard, being treated for severe burns.

Ahmed, 27, an aeronautics engineer from Bangalore in India, remained in a largely vegetative state and detectives never had a chance to question him.

A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said late last night: "We can confirm that the man who was seriously injured during the course of the incident at Glasgow Airport on Saturday, 30 June, has died at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (GRI).

"The circumstances surrounding the death have been reported to the procurator- fiscal. We cannot confirm the identity of this individual at this stage."

The foiled attack on 30 June came after two failed car bombings in London.

Ahmed was alleged to have crashed the car into the front of the airport terminal.

Members of the public tried to stop him, but Ahmed fought back, chanting "Allah, Allah" and it took several men to pull him to the ground and put out the flames with a fire extinguisher.

Reports in the weeks following the attack suggested the two men in the Jeep were under the influence of large doses of the painkiller morphine at the time of the attack.

Ahmed was initially taken to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at the GRI.

Medical staff at the hospital had not expected him to survive his injuries, stating that he had lost so much of his skin that it had been rendered beyond repair, leaving him open to infection.

It was reported doctors were considering an experimental skin graft costing 20,000 and using shark skin to treat him.

Ahmed began his studies in Belfast in 2001 and remained in Northern Ireland until 2004.

He completed an M Phil in aeronautical engineering in 2003, then studied for a PhD in computational fluid dynamics at Anglia Polytechnic University.

The other man alleged to have been in the car, Bilal Abdullah, an Iraqi doctor, has been charged with conspiring to set off explosions.

Ahmed's brother, Sabeel Ahmed, 26, also faces trial after being charged with withholding information that could prevent an act of terrorism.

He was arrested in Liverpool on the day of the Glasgow attack. Jordanian doctor Mohammed Jamil Asha also faces charges over the botched attacks.

Mohamed Haneef, the 27-year-old cousin of the Ahmed brothers, was arrested and charged in Australia over the attacks, but he was released after police were forced to admit they did not have enough evidence to hold him.