Asha was born in Saudi Arabia but brought up in Jordan. His father last night insisted Asha was a good Muslim who had never shown any interest in political Islam. He brandished a picture of his son shaking hands with Jordan’s Queen Noor.

And a third man, arrested in the Lime Street area of Liverpool on Saturday evening, is said to be a 26-year-old doctor from Bangalore in India.

He was said to be working at Halton Hospital in Cheshire, according to the Muslim News,  but the hospital denied any of its staff had been arrested.

Two men aged 25 and 28 and believed to be medical students were detained in the early hours at the staff accommodation block of the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

Detectives in London have been given until Saturday to question three of the arrested people, who are being held at Paddington Green police station in London.

At the Royal Alexandra hospital, armed police are guarding the driver of the Jeep as he is treated for life-threatening burns sustained in the attack.

Bomb disposal experts also carried out two controlled explosions on a suspect car at the hospital yesterday.
A blue Vauxhall Corsa, which police confirmed was linked to the two men in the Jeep, was found parked within the grounds of the hospital.

Neighbours of Dr Asha who drove a white Nissan Sunny, spoke yesterday of visits to his house by two young bearded Asian looking men in the week before the attack in Glasgow. Lorry driver Brian Holland said: “In the past week we noticed an extra car had been turning up.

“The visitors were two youngish Asian men with long beards who stayed overnight on several occasions.”

Another neighbour, retired miner John Hammersley, told yesterday of a visit by another Asian looking couple.
He said that a young man and his wife in traditional dress who had visited on previous occasions arrived at 11am on Saturday.

“They all went out for three to four hours, came back together and that is the last I saw of them,” he said.

It emerged yesterday that the net was closing in on the two men in the Jeep as they made their final preparations for the airport attack.

Just 10 minutes prior to the attack detectives tried to contact the agency that let a property to one of the men in the village of Houston, near Glasgow Airport.

Letting agent Daniel Gardiner said officers traced his company after tracking phone records linked to the foiled London car bomb attacks. He added: “The police wanted to know why we had dialled a certain phone number. They had the phone records from the situation down in London.”

His comments add weight to the theory that mobile phones left in the London car bombs have been used to trace other potential members of the terrorist cell. The mobiles may also have been intended to act as detonators for the two crude devices.

A Mercedes containing petrol, gas cylinders and nails was found outside a nightclub in London’s Haymarket – another was discovered in a nearby street, in the early hours of Friday.

Officers gleaned crucial clues from the vehicles themselves, CCTV footage and congestion charge cameras that record vehicle movements in the city.

Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism command, is in Glasgow where he said the investigation is changing hourly.

Police have also carried out searches at North Stafford-shire hospital, in Stoke-on-Trent, where Dr Asha worked. Searches were also undertaken in Newcastle-under-Lyme, north Staffordshire, two addresses in Liverpool and the village of Houston, near Glasgow Airport. Last night Stansted Airport in Essex was sealed off after a suspect package was found near the front of the terminal.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday vowed the country would not be “intimidated” by “those who wish to destroy our way of life and our freedoms”. In a statement to the Commons, she also paid tribute to those who helped avert explosions.

She said she would look at requests from Shadow Home Secretary David Davis to officially recognise the heroes who ran to the assistance of police in apprehending the suspects at Glasgow airport.

Additional reporting by Tom Whitehead