Alerts: Counter-terror officials fear regional airports are being targeted for dummy runs by would-be terrorists
Security officials have tested security at regional airports amid fears terror scouts have been staging dummy runs, it emerged today.
Two suspect packages have reportedly been spotted in the last three months which appeared to be like improvised bombs.
One hidden in a box inside a bag of hand luggage had a BlackBerry attached to a baby's bottle with a charging cable thought to be simulating a detonator.
The second - spotted at the same airport some weeks later - also contained a mobile phone and detonator, according to The Guardian.
Both 'devices' were examined by bomb disposal experts and found to be harmless, meaning no passengers were charged.
Counter-terrorism officials apparently believe that airports are being 'periodically tested' in a bid to hunt out any weaknesses that could be exploited.
One Whitehall source said airports out of London were a greater concern because they are perceived to have less stringent security measures.
'Periodically they [suspected terrorists] are seeing how the system works, that the security systems are being tested,' the source told The Guardian.
BAA, which owns Heathrow and Stansted, has urged the Government to make security procedures less predictable.
It is trialling 'behavioural detection', where staff are trained to pick out any passengers behaving strangely.
Fears have been heightened after the alert at East Midlands Airport last month, when an ink bomb wired up to a mobile phone was found on a freight flight.
Al Qaeda planners believed the plane would have been over the Atlantic to America when it was primed to go off but it had to make an unscheduled stop off to refuel.
The counter-terror battle to prevent 9/11 style attacks is becoming ever more difficult as terrorists become more sophisticated.
But earlier this month, the Government revealed the ban on carrying liquids in hand luggage at UK airports was to be eased and could go completely by 2013.
Passengers have been restricted to carrying just 100ml of liquid in their hand luggage following a failed plot to blow up transatlantic jets in 2006.
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said he planned to make the system more flexible, starting with aerosols, gels and liquids.
A Department of Transport spokesman said: 'The UK adopts a multi-layered approach to aviation security, combining technology, intelligence and other techniques to give us one of the strictest regimes in the world. This is kept under constant review based on the latest developing threats.'
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