A 27-year-old doctor arrested in Australia over the foiled terror attacks in London and Glasgow is an Indian national, Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday.

Howard also revealed that a second doctor was being interviewed in relation to information given to counterterror authorities by the first.

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

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The identity of that second person arose from the discussions that occurred with the first person taken into custody, he added.

Both doctors worked at the Gold Coast Hospital in southeast Queensland and were both recruited from Liverpool, London, officials said.

Police seized the first man, whose name was not immediately released, at the international airport in the eastern city of Brisbane, where he was trying to board a flight with a one-way ticket late Monday, Attorney General Philip Ruddock told reporters in the national capital, Canberra.

No charges have been filed yet. Under federal counterterrorism laws, terror suspects can be held without charge for three days, and for longer periods with court approval.

The man is one of eight people - including at least two other doctors identified by British authorities - arrested over a string of failed terror attacks in Britain. The attack plots include two car bombs that failed to explode in central London on Friday, and two men who rammed a vehicle with gas cylinders into an airport entrance in Glasgow, Scotland, and then set it on fire Saturday.

The suspect arrested in Australia had been working as a medical registrar at the Gold Coast Hospital in eastern Queensland state.

said that police also were interviewing a second doctor in the case, but that authorities are not aware of any specific link between the man and the foiled attacks.

At this point, there is no suggestion in relation to the second doctor, Beattie told reporters in the eastern city of Brisbane. We do not know of any link the second doctor may have had with anyone.


Ruddock would not say what the man's alleged involvement in the British terror plots was, nor whether other people in Australia were under investigation. He also declined to tell reporters where the man had been heading when he was arrested.

The doctor arrested Monday was hired in September 2006 after he answered an advertisement in the British Medical Journal. He was recruited from Liverpool, Britain, but completed his medical internship in India, Beattie said. He is a junior doctor who was supervised by more senior staff, Beattie said.

"The doctor was regarded by the hospital as, in many senses, a model citizen - excellent references and so on," Queensland state leader Peter Beattie said.

Beattie said, to his knowledge, the doctor had not resigned before attempting to leave the country. The second doctor also was recruited from Liverpool, but it was not clear where he completed his studies, Beattie said.

Local media reports said the arrested man was about to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a view to getting a connecting flight to India, but officials would not confirm the reports.

Police executed a number of search warrants across Queensland state overnight, including at the hospital where the man worked, but there was no sign that Australia was a possible target for attack, Ruddock said.

"While a terrorist attack could certainly be possible in Australia, we have no specific information about any such planned action here, " Ruddock said.