Travellers in Europe could face intrusive airport security measures in response to the latest ploy by al-Qaeda — suicide bombers who carry high explosives inside their bodies, it emerged today.

French anti-terrorism chiefs are expected to recommend widening examinations already used to catch drug smugglers after President Sarkozy’s new domestic intelligence directorate (DCRI) learnt of an attack in Saudi Arabia in which the bomber detonated such a device in his rectum.

Al-Qaeda gave video publicity to its new method tested by Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri, a 23-year-old terrorist, who blew himself apart at a meeting in Jeddah in late August with Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, the Saudi anti-terrorism chief. The Prince was slightly injured in the blast, but al-Asiri, who used a mobile telephone to trigger the bomb, was ripped into 70 pieces, the DCRI report said.

Such a blast, though limited in force, could be catastrophic in a pressurised airliner, say experts. Counter-measures would be draconian. As well as taking off shoes and handing in liquids, passengers could be subjected to X-ray screening or be required to hand in all electronic devices because they could be used as detonators, police commanders told Le Figaro newspaper.

Full X-ray scans, which are used by customs officers for examining suspected drug smugglers, would cause huge disruptions for air travellers, said a senior Interior Ministry official. “It is unthinkable when you think about the freqency with which some people fly. The health risks would be too high,” he told Le Figaro.

The Ministry declined comment on possible new measures, which would be decided by Brice Hortefeux, the Interior Minister.

Experts have long expected terrorists to copy the technique of drug “mules” who cross frontiers with up to several pounds of narcotics in their body cavities. The weapon could be effective for assassination or possibly in the confined space of an airliner, they say.

“The hardest thing for the terrorists was to make a detonator and a way of setting it off. With advances in miniaturisation, they are getting close,” said Sebastien Mahé, an airport security expert with Brink’s France.

It would be possible, though difficult, to bring down an aircraft with such a device, he told The Times. “You would need a certain weight of explosive because the human body acts as quite a strong shock absorber.”

Some US experts are more worried. “The implications here are enormous,” Sandy Straus of the Florida-based Explosives Academy, said after the Jeddah blast. “If we see more of these attacks, this ultimately will cost society a huge legal, financial and emotional expense.”

Scott Stewart of Stratfor, a Texas-based global intelligence firm, said that an al-Qaeda-style “keister bomb”, as they are also known, could have “a catastrophic result if employed on an aircraft, especially if it were removed from the bomber’s body and placed in a strategic location on board the aircraft.”

Others have been warning against the risk of playing into al-Qaeda’s hands by raising the alarm. The Muslim extremists are still at the trial stage and they want to cause disruption with their threat, said Eric Andlauer, a French consultant on aviation security. “Everyone talked a lot about liquid explosives which have not caused one death, but drastic action was taken. This time, no one has for the moment been talking about this [Jeddah] attack. Perhaps there will not be a follow-up. I am not going to say what they should do to make their bomb more efficient. Terrorists read newspapers like everyone.”

Al-Qaeda has promised to put instructions on assembling and concealing such a device on the internet. In their video, released in early September, al-Asiri, one of Saudi Arabia’s most wanted suspects, shows off the metal cylinder and larger detonator which he carried to meet the Saudi minister, supposedly to repent.

He had travelled on the minister’s aircraft and spent 24 hours with his security gurds without being detected. He remained in posession of his telephone. The military-grade high explosive is believed to have been triggered by a text message, but the message source is not known. The explosion ripped a large hole in the floor but the attacker’s body was said to have absorbed much of the shock.

Experts differ on the effectiveness of security screening for internal explosives. Body scanners, which emit very low level radiation have been in use for the past two years at some airports but they do not show internal objects. Metal containers would easily appear on full X-ray machines.

Mr Mahé predicted that airports would eventually introduce “millimetric wave” scanners which look into into the body without radiation. “For the moment they will focus on the detonators and profiling [suspicious passengers]. “This threat is new and I hope that it will help public opinion move forward on scanning machines.”

Civil liberties groups have objected to the existing body scan machines, calling them virtual strip searches. They are unlikely to be happy about even more intrusive examination

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