Friday, August 11 2006 12:38 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Terrorists had planned to blow up 10 US-bound planes by mixing a British sports drink with a gel-like substance and were hoping to stage a practice run followed by actual attacks 'within days', security officials said today (Aug 11,2006).

Cracking down on the funding of the suspects, the Bank of England today froze the accounts of 19 of the 24 arrested men. Many of them are believed to be Britons of Pakistani origin.

"The Bank of England has today directed that any fundsheld for or on behalf of the 19 individuals must be frozen and that no funds should be made available directly or indirectly to any person, except under the autority of a licence," the Bank said in a statement.

The 24 men arrested in overnight raids in Britain had not bought plane tickets but were in the process of surfing the Internet to find flights that had similar departure times.

The suspects were planning to stage a test run within couple of days, US intelligence officials said.

The plan involved mixing a sports drink with a gel-like substance to explosives that could be ignited with an MP3 player or cell phone.

"The sports drink could be combined with a peroxide-based paste to form a potent explosive cocktail," counterterrorism officials said.

As many as 50 people were involved in the plot and the British police were conducting raids across the country to catch more suspects. Police said they have detained the key players but believe the network involved is large and global.

Five more suspects are still at large in Britain and are being urgently sought, US media reported.