Rediff

Jul 3: An Indian doctor has been arrested and another physician is being questioned by police in connection with the foiled terror attacks in London and Glasgow, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday.

"The first person taken into custody is an Indian national who came to Australia sponsored by the Queensland (state) health department," Howard told reporters in Canberra.

"The 27-year-old doctor, who was a registrar at the Gold Coast hospital in eastern Queensland state, was arrested by counter-terrorism police at Brisbane International Airport on Monday night, where he was trying to board a flight with a one-way ticket," Attorney General Philip Ruddock earlier said.

It is understood the doctor was headed for India via the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, on a one-way air ticket, but had not resigned from his job at the Gold Coast Hospital.

"No charges have been filed yet," he said, adding that the man was now assisting police with their inquiries.

The arrest takes the number of suspects detained in the UK terror plot to eight - including five doctors or other medical personnel and all appear to be aged in their late 20s.

"There were suggestions from the UK that in the context of their investigations there was some interest in (a) person abroad," Ruddock said.

Police executed a number of search warrants in south-east Queensland, including at the hospital in Southport, after the man's arrest, Ruddock said. Queensland Premier Beater Beattie said the man began working at the Gold Coast Hospital in September 2006 after seeing a job advertisement in the British Medical Journal.

Before coming to Queensland, the man had been working in Liverpool, England

The second doctor being questioned also came from Liverpool, Beattie said.

Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson said no explosive material had been found.

But it is understood their emails have been seized.

Ruddock said no change had been made to Australia's terror alert level, which remained at medium.

"While these matters are obviously of concern, there is no information that suggests the terror alert at medium should be varied," Ruddock said.

"When I use those words I use them very deliberately because what it means is that while a terrorist attack could certainly be possible in Australia, we have no specific information about any such planned action."

Beattie said there was no specific threat to Queensland, which is due to host high-level meetings of APEC trade and finance ministers this month.