Seven Britons, accused of planning bomb attacks on the UK, discussed blowing
up one of the country's largest shopping malls and "the biggest nightclub in
London," a court heard on Wednesday.
Police surveillance officers also overheard some of the suspects praising the
Madrid bombings of March 2004, talking about detonators and considering attacks
on Britain's gas, electrical or water supplies, prosecutor David Waters said.
London's Old Bailey criminal court also heard claims that Pakistani militants
had tried to buy a nuclear bomb from the Russian mafia in a plot that never came
to fruition.
Waters told the court that one suspect, Waheed Mahmood, had suggested a blast
at the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, just outside London, on a Saturday
when it would be crowded with shoppers.
Mahmood, he added, was caught by covert listening devices in a fellow
suspect's car on March 19, 2004, saying: "Is it worth getting all the brothers
together tonight and asking who would be ready to go?"
Mahmood was also said to have raised the possibility of "a little explosion
at Bluewater -- tomorrow if you want.
"I don't know how big it would be, we haven't tested it, but we could
tomorrow -- do one tomorrow."