A group of men accused of plotting to lead a wave of suicide bomb attacks on transatlantic airliners threw away bomb-making materials as they were watched by undercover police, a court heard today.

Officers recovered two plastic bags from public bins in Lloyds Park, Walthamstow, East London, containing short plastic wires attached to miniature bulbs with their filaments exposed.

Woolwich Crown Court was told that the devices were intended to detonate home-made liquid bombs when connected to a battery.

Eight men are on trial accused of plotting to blow up passenger jets in a series of devastating explosions.

Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, said that police began collecting damning evidence days before they arrested the defendants in August 2006.

The two plastic carrier bags were recovered from bins in the public park on July 31, he said. One contained Lucozade bottles, latex gloves, plastic cylinders, needles and parts of a battery. The other contained the lightbulbs.

The court heard that the park was a short walk from an alleged bomb factory in Forest Road. A third bag containing heavily stained latex gloves had been recovered from outside the second-floor flat three days earlier.

Mr Whittam said that forensic experts found DNA and fingerprints linking Tanvir Hussain, one of the defendants, to two of the discarded bags.

Earlier, the jury had heard that DNA and fingerprint traces from several defendants were found at the flat.

Prosecutors claimed that the property was used as a base by the group to build their bombs and record suicide videos. A camcorder instruction booklet had fingerprints from Abdulla Ahmed Ali, the alleged ringleader, and Ibrahim Savant, the court heard.

Mr Hussain’s DNA was allegedly found on some discarded chewing gum, latex gloves and an oven dish.

Examination of a mattress in one of the bedrooms revealed three fibres from a black flag used as a backdrop in the suicide videos. Other items found in the flat included jars full of batteries, wires, sticky tape and food colouring.

The prosecution claim these were all vital ingredients in the bombs, which were to be disguised as soft drinks. They would then be carried aboard non-stop flights to major North American cities and detonated in mid-air, the jury heard.

The defendants are: Abdullah Ahmed Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow; Assad Sarwar, 27, of Walton Drive, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire; 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 Farnan Avenue, Walthamstow, East London; Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen’s Road, Walthamstow; and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, of Bushey Road, Plaistow, East London.

They deny the offences. The trial continues.

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