I was sitting in Bute House with 007 when I was told of the airport attack

FORMER FIRST MINISTER LOOKS BACK ON 2007 HORROR AND TELLS HOW HE AND CONNERY WATCHED IT ON TV

The former first minister was with Sean Connery when the carnage erupted 10 years ago.

Salmond was showing visitors around his off icial Edinburgh residence, Bute House, when the news was broken to him by a civil servant shortly after 3.30pm.

The off icial opening of the Scottish Parliament had finished just three hours earlier and Salmond was looking forward to an evening at the theatre with his wife Moira and Connery.

With only sketchy detai ls available, Salmond and his guest – who had foiled numerous terror plots in Hollywood blockbusters – turned on the TV to learn more.

Salmond said: “There was a Sky newsflash. Sean is usually unflappable with these things – I suppose it must be all these Bond films he’s been in – but there was still a fair amount of astonishment.

“This was the first terrorist incident in Scotland really because there had never, for example, been an IRA terrorist incident here.

“There was shock Scotland was regarded as a terrorist target.”

Salmond began a meetings on security in St Andrew’s House and a call soon came through on a secure line from Gordon Brown, the new prime minister.

The two men put any previous antagonism behind them to discuss the threat to the nation.

Salmond said: “It was in the af termat h of the London car bombs and there was an immediate suspicion that there was a connection.

“Brown asked me to take part in the Cobra security meeting by videolink. I was quite pleased he had offered that straight away – it was the right thing to do.”

Just ice secretar y Kenny MacAskill and Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini also took part.

Salmond then gave a press conference at St Andrew’s House. He wanted to set an example that life should go on as normal so he later went to join his guests at the production of Black Watch.

He added: “We decided that it was best to continue as we had

planned and let them get on with the job at the airport. In fact, I arrived just as it was finishing.”

The next morning at 4.30am Strathclyde Police raided the terrorists’ unlikely lair – a twobedroom semi-detached house in Houston, Renfrewshire.

The force’s community relations experts were keen to make the public aware the terrorists were not home-grown in a bid to ward of f any il l- feel ing towards Scotland’s Muslim community.

Salmond said: “Strathclyde

Police had established that the suspects had only been in Glasgow for weeks and came in the guise of a medical programme to work at the hospital in Paisley.

“The community relations team spoke forcibly of the need for an immediate public understanding of the nature of the incident in terms of preventing any spillover to inter-community relations.”

The First Minister decided to visit the airport on the Sunday afternoon and make a statement which would outline the findings