Students guilty of bomb hoax

The fake bombs were planted at student halls at Luton University

Three university students who caused a terrorist alert in Luton have pleaded guilty to a bomb hoax charge.

The trio planted a fake device, which had the appearance of a bomb, at student halls at Luton University on 21 March 2003.

Azhar Ali, 21, Wajad Majad, 20 and Abdul Malik, 25, had all previously denied charges of conspiracy to place a hoax bomb.

But at Luton Crown Court on Thursday, the three students from north London changed their plea to guilty.

Bomb experts

The hoax caused the student halls in Bute Street to be evacuated for six hours and caused disruption in Luton town centre.

Bomb disposal experts were called in and used a remote control robot to make the package safe.

The three were arrested later the same day under the Prevention of Terrorist Act and were also suspended from university.

They will be sentenced on 11 September when an hour-long DVD will be played, showing how the "prank" was set up.

The charge they have admitted is conspiracy to place a hoax bomb with the intention it would induce the belief it was likely to explode or ignite and cause personal injury or damage to property.

Judge Charles Atkins granted all three conditional bail.