Woman accused of plot to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral

AN ALLEGED female jihadist has been accused of plotting to blow up St Paul’s Cathedral in a suicide attack.

Safiyya Amira Shaikh, from Hayes, Middlesex, was arrested last week and charged in connection with the alleged Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) plot.

Prosecutors claim the 36-year-old carried out a reconnaissance trip to London to scope out the famous tourist attraction as a potential target.

Ms Shaikh allegedly attempted to make contact with a supposed bombmaker online and asked them to build two improvised explosive devices.

She later met with her contact, and allegedly handed them two bags, in which the IEDS were to be placed.

While carrying out her reconnaissance mission, it is alleged that she stayed at a central London hotel, which she also identified as a potential target. Prosecutors claim she intended to leave one device in the hotel and carry the other into St Paul’s, where she would detonate it, killing herself and as many other people as possible.

She was arrested when it turned out that her bomb-making contact was an undercover officer.

Between Aug 19 and Oct 10, Ms Shaikh allegedly pledged allegiance to Isil – a proscribed terrorist organisation. It is also claimed she helped to run an encrypted social media account, on which terrorist documents and bombmaking instructions were shared.

Ms Shaikh appeared before Westminster magistrates’ court and was remanded in custody until her next court appearance at the Old Bailey on Nov 1.

Prosecutors allege she had been planning the plot for around two months before Scotland Yard’s counter terrorism unit arrested her at her home in north-west London.

She was held under the Terrorism Act 2000.