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Washington: A Nigerian national, arrested on charges of "attempted act of terrorism" in a Detroit bound plane, has told interrogators that explosive powder was taped to his leg and he used a syringe to mix chemicals with it to cause an explosion.
The 23-year-old man, identified as Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, said the device was "more incendiary than explosive," and that he had tried to ignite the device or mixture to cause a fire as the plane was approaching Detroit, a senior official from the Department of Homeland Security was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Mutallab told the law enforcement authorities that he had explosive powder taped to his leg and that he used a syringe full of chemicals to mix with the powder to try to cause an explosion, the daily reported. The device, however, failed to fully detonate.
The Nigerian national, according to fellow passengers and investigating agencies, tried to ignite a small explosive 20-30 minutes before the Northwest Airline flight 253 carrying 278 passengers was about to land at the Detroit airport.
Overpowered by fellow passengers and handed over to security agencies on landing, he was being questioned by the FBI on how he managed to breach the tight security and sneak in explosive inside the plane and his links with al-Qaeda.
The plane originated in Nigeria, but had its stop in Amsterdam.
Initial reports said Mutallab, who has also revealed about his al-Qaeda links, was put on the watch list by the US but was not debarred from entering the country.
Passengers told local media that the Nigerian national was injured as he tried to ignite the explosive.
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ABC News and NBC News reported that he is an engineering student at University College of London.
"Mutallab has told federal investigators that he had ties to al-Qaeda and travelled to Yemen to collect the incendiary device and instructions on how to use it," according to a federal counterterrorism official, the Washington Post said.
However, the official expressed caution about the claim, saying "it may have been aspirational," The New York Times said.
"Federal authorities have been told that Mutallab allegedly had taped some material to his leg, then used a chemical-laden syringe to mix with the powder while on board the airplane," an official was quoted as saying by the Post.
"Officials described the device as incendiary rather than explosive, pending tests by forensics experts at the FBI.
Incendiary devices generally deliver less of an impact than explosive devices," the Post said.
Federal officials said the man wanted to bring the plane down. "This was the real deal," Congressman Peter T King of New York told the New York Times.
Ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, King, who was briefed on the incident, said something had gone wrong with the explosive device, which was "somewhat sophisticated". "This could have been devastating."
The White House has termed the incident as an "attempted act of terrorism" while the US national security agencies say it as an "attempt to blow up the plane".
"We're trying to ascertain exactly what he had and what he thought he was doing, but our sense is that he wanted to wreak some havoc here and was attempting to do just that," an official was quoted as saying by The New York Times.
"Whether at the end of the day he had the ability to do that is what I think we'll be able to pull together over the next several days as we investigate this," the official said.
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