Police are stopping and checking petrol tankers travelling into London amid fears they may be used as travelling ’bombs’ in a terrorist attack.

Scotland Yard has been questioning drivers for the last few months as part of a range of measures to counter the terrorist threat to the capital. Al-Qa’eda is known to have used petrol lorries in attacks in other parts of the world, particularly in Iraq, although it is not thought that UK-based terrorists are plotting such an attack. However, last year, terrorist Dhiren Barot was jailed for 40 years for plotting a series of atrocities - among them was a plan to hijack petrol tankers and ram them into targets in London.