The man arrested for allegedly trying to blow up a transatlantic flight from France was turned away from a Paris airport the day before, French officials said yesterday.
Officials at Charles de Gaulle airport said the suspect was turned away on Friday, perhaps because he had no baggage to check in, but that he successfully boarded the next day after changing his identity.
Passengers and crew overpowered the man, who attempted to ignite explosives mid-flight aboard an American Airlines jet carrying 197 people.
French police said the man identified himself to Boston police as a Sri Lankan national, Mr Abdel Rahim, a Muslim. He was carrying a suspected fake British passport which was issued three weeks earlier in Belgium in the name of Richard Colvin Reid, born in 1973.
France's Europe 1 radio, quoting intelligence sources, said the suspect told FBI officials he was a Sri Lankan named Rajid. "One thing that's certain is that the man did spend some time in Belgium," the radio said.
"They found on him a map of Brussels with places marked with a cross, notably a street close to the British embassy."