Experts suspect Iran’s involvement in Heathrow Airport uranium package incident

LONDON – Experts have suspected involvement of Iran as a package containing uranium was seized at Heathrow Airport in December last, British media reported.

The package was initially linked to Pakistan, though the Foreign Office dismissed the media reports as factually incorrect.

The UK border force officials seized material containing uranium during routine security screening on Dec 29; however, no arrests were made yet.

The amount of radioactive metal was said to be ‘small’ which poses no threat to the public, while it sparked a frenzy, prompting action from Scotland Yard.

The package, which was intended to be delivered for an Iranian business in the UK, arrived on a flight from Oman after allegedly originating in Pakistan, reports suggest, revealing that it was a shipment of scrap metal.

Philip Ingram, a former military intelligence officer, told the Daily Telegraphy some Iranians might have conducted the dry run to test the efficiency of UK customs authorities.

Ingram said: “If you were to use depleted uranium in a ‘dirty bomb,’ like any isotope it would cause a contamination issue — but there are a lot more radioactive isotopes out there that would be easier to get hold of and would have a much greater effect.

“It’s definitely a possibility that this could have been some form of reconnaissance or dry run to test how the security was operating during the industrial action.”

He also appreciated the Heathrow airport authorities for detecting the small amount of uranium stashed in metal bars.