Eight deny jet bomb plot charges

Peter Wright QC said the victims of the attacks would be an "unwitting civilian population".

Woolwich Crown Court heard how homemade devices would be smuggled on to aircraft and detonated in flight by a suicide bomber.

Eight men deny two charges linked to the alleged plot which counter terrorist police foiled in August 2006.

The first charge alleges that the men conspired to murder between January 1 and August 11, 2006.

The second charge alleges that the men conspired to commit an act of violence likely to endanger the safety of an aircraft between the same dates.

The eight men are: Abdulla Ahmed Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow, east London, Assad Sarwar, 27, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, Bucks, Tanvir Hussain, 27, of Nottingham Road, Leyton, east London, Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Priory Road, Barking, east London, Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Denver Road, Stoke Newington, north London, Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of Farnham Avenue, Walthamstow, Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, of Bushey Road, Plaistow, east London.

Mr Wright alleged the men planned to inflict heavy casualties, all in the name of Islam. He said the means by which they intended to kill people was by the carrying out of a series of co-ordinated explosions.

"The disaster they contemplated was not long off," he said.

The case continues.