A WALTHAMSTOW flat became a DIY bomb factory as eight would-be terrorists plotted to blow up aeroplanes, a court heard.

Household items and soft drinks bottles, which could be made into bombs were all found at the two-bedroom address, Woolwich Crown Court heard today.

Four men from Walthamstow and one from Leyton are accused of plotting in summer 2006 to smuggle the bombs onto transatlantic flights and explode them, along with three other men.

They all deny conspiring to murder and endangering aircraft.

Prosecutors told the court £138,000 cash paid for the property just one month before the eight were arrested in a series of raids in the Walthamstow, High Wycombe and Birmingham.

The court heard fingerprints and DNA of several of the defendants had been found on carrier bags, latex gloves and other rubbish outside the flat.

It was close to the home of the Walthamstow man who prosecutors claim was the ringleader of the plot, Abdullah Ahmed Ali.

Undercover police filmed Mr Ali entering and leaving the flat several times.

It is alleged Tanvir Hussain, formerly of Leyton, Arafat Waheed Khan and Waheed Zaman, both from Walthamstow, Umar Islam, from High Wycombe, and Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Stamford Hill, were also seen.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said; "It is the Crown's case that this unoccupied property on a busy road in a residential area of Walthamstow was ideally situated to the needs of the conspirators, in this case because within days of the sale having been completed the property had been transformed into a bomb factory,"

"It contained the various paraphernalia necessary to create the kind of improvised explosive devices that could be carried through security at an airport disguised as items of hand luggage and soft drinks."

Jurors heard that batteries, syringes, food dye, disposable cameras and soft drinks bottles were all found at the flat.

Mr Wright said explosive liquid would be taken on board with the other items so the accused could assemble DIY bombs while in the air.

The liquid would be injected into the base of the Lucozade and Oasis drink bottles, and detonators would be disguised as batteries.

The electrical charge needed to set the device off would come from disposable cameras.

He added that many of the alleged suicide videos found in a car in Walthamstow had been filmed at the same address.

The defendants are Ahmed Abdullah Ali, aka Ahmed Ali Khan, 27, of Prospect Hill, Walthamstow; Arafat Waheed Khan, 26, of Farnan Avenue, Walthamstow; Waheed Zaman, 23, of Queen's Road, Walthamstow; Ibrahim Savant, 27, of Folkestone Road, Walthamstow; and Tanvir Hussain, of Nottingham Road, Leyton.

Also accused are Assad Sarwar, 24, and Umar Islam, aka Brian Young, 29, both of High Wycombe, and Mohammed Gulzar, 26, of Barking.

The trial continues.