Dutch authorities are to make new, more sensitive passenger scanners compulsory after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab allegedly smuggled explosives in his underwear through Schiphol Airport security.

The 23-year-old Nigerian is said to have had a highly explosive chemical PETN sewn into the crotch of his underpants when he boarded Northwest Airlines flight 253.

As a result airline security is under review worldwide.

Meanwhile, President Obama has pledged to hunt down the would-be bomber’s support network.

He said: “We will continue to use every element of our national power to disrupt, to dismantle and defeat the violent extremists who threaten us, whether they are from Afghanistan or Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia, or anywhere where they are plotting attacks against the US homeland.”

Tragedy was only averted on the Detroit-bound aircraft when the detonator – acid in a syringe – caused a fire but did not make enough contact to explode the PETN. If it had done, it would have caused a big explosion.

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