Regular household products including teabags and nail polish remover were used to make explosive devices designed to cause death and injury in London, a court was told yesterday.

The alleged July 21 bombers had their own methods, including using teabags as filter paper, to make TATP explosive, it was claimed. They used kitchen pans to boil down chemicals for the explosive, which was to act as the detonator for their main charge of hydrogen peroxide and chapatti flour, Woolwich Crown Court was told.

Six men are accused of hatching and carrying out a plot targeting the public transport system in London two weeks after the July 7 attacks. Once prepared, the TATP was stored in a sideboard at the home of one defendant for up to four weeks.

Clifford Todd, the principal forensic investigator at the Forensic Explosives Laboratory in Kent, said that the material was extremely dangerous. It was destroyed at a safe facility.

Counsel for one defendant said that the acetone used, taken from an artificial nail remover solution, was not as pure — and so not as effective — as that used in the laboratory.

Muktah Said Ibrahim, 29, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, 33, Yassin Omar, 26, Hussein Osman, 28, Ramzi Mohammed, 25, and Adel Yahya, 24, deny charges of conspiracy to murder and cause explosions.

The trial continues.

Times Recommends

• Everyone will get vaccine against swine flu
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC staff lavished with trips to lobby for awards