A BIOCHEMIST from Egypt is being sought by police who believe he may hold clues to a flat in Leeds which became the “bomb factory” where devices used by the suicide terrorists were prepared.

Magdi el Nashar, 33, a science student whose nickname is “Mr M”, was reported to have asked his landlord for the keys so he could provide them to a mystery friend needing accommodation.

Forensic officers were yesterday still examining the flat where suspicious materials were discovered stored in the bath. Hundreds of neighbours were evacuated from their homes for days as officers feared the area could be blown sky-high by explosives.

Police yesterday visited Leeds University asking about Dr el Nashar, who was recently awarded a postgraduate degree. They took away his photograph. He is said to have left the country.

Last night neighbours at the family home in one of Cairo’s slums said that security officers had come to the street and asked questions about him. One said: “He was just like any of us. He regularly went to pray and was a good Muslim.” Dr el Nashar’s name emerges from the complicated arrangements made to rent out the flat in Alexandra Grove, in the Leeds district of Hyde Park, where student bedsits meet an Asian community.

Dr el Nashar came to Leeds in October 2000 to study biochemistry. Previously, he had studied at Cairo University and the North Carolina State University in the United States.

Home for Dr el Nashar in Leeds was a four-bedroom, top-floor flat of a three-storey house in St John’s Avenue in the Headingley student area.

Neighbours said the Egyptian was a bespectacled, smartly-dressed bachelor with short hair and a beard. He was active at the Grand Mosque in the city and would volunteer to help in community activities such as school open days.

Dr al Nashar completed his PhD in February. His visa was due to expire when his studies were over but the Home Office gave him an update early this year so he could seek work in Britain.

He told neighbours a job application to a Dublin university had failed. He was last seen on the campus at the beginning of July. His landlord said that his old tenant had telephoned a couple of weeks ago to say he was returning to Egypt because of a visa problem.

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