LONDON : Two doctors accused of plotting failed car bombings in London and Glasgow last year escaped the scene of their first botched attack on cycle rickshaws, their trial heard Friday.

The getaway method was revealed among graphic details on the second day of the trial of Iraqi-born Bilal Abdulla, 28, and Jordanian neurologist Mohammed Asha, 29, who both worked for Britain's state-run National Health Service.

The pair are accused of conspiracy to murder and to cause explosions in a failed double car bombing in London on June 29, 2007, and a bid the next day to crash a car filled with gas bottles into the main terminal at Glasgow airport.

Recounting the London attack, prosecutors told how they placed one rickshaw outside a packed nightclub, and the other at a bus stop, to get away after leaving two Mercedes Benz cars filled with petrol, gas canisters and nails.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw said the two men were captured on CCTV security cameras leaving the area in the early hours of the morning.

The court heard how Abdulla parked a green Mercedes outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub, where more than 550 people were inside. The bomb was only discovered when a bouncer and manager noticed vapour coming out of the car.

At about the same time a blue Mercedes was parked at a nearby bus stop, also filled with gas canisters. It stayed there for about an hour before a traffic warden issued it with a ticket, and it was towed to an underground car pound.

The car outside Tiger Tiger, which was eventually made safe by bomb experts, was found to contain nearly 900 50 mm (two-inch) nails.

"We suggest that the purpose of placing nails in the cars is too obvious to state," said Laidlaw. "But it does provide, we argue, a clear sign as to what the bombers intended."

For the Glasgow attack the following day, the jury was shown CCTV footage of the moment the car was driven into the terminal building, containing Abdulla and driven by a third man, Kafeel Ahmed.

"Fortunately for those within the building at that time the Jeep became caught against the right-hand side of one of the entrance doors," Laidlaw told the court.

Ahmed and Abdulla lit and threw petrol bombs as they shouted "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God is great".

"It is clear that having failed to detonate the vehicles in London they were prepared to do literally anything to achieve an explosion which was bound, having been successful, to result in them losing their lives," said

Police eventually managed to overpower the pair with the help of bystanders. Ahmed, who suffered 90 percent burns, later died in hospital.

A third man, 26-year-old Sabeel Ahmed, was found guilty by a British court in April of withholding information from police about the attacks, and sentenced to 18 months imprisonment.

He was deported to his home country India in May after being released from custody due to the amount of time he had already served in jail.

The only other man charged in connection with the plot -- Indian doctor Mohammed Haneef, who was detained in Australia -- was exonerated by a court of charges that he had abetted a group involved in the failed bombings, after the case against him collapsed for lack of evidence.

Both Abulla and Asha deny the charges against them.

- AFP /ls