The Sun newspaper said it was found in a shipment of scrap metal which first reported the news, adding the uranium came from Pakistan.
The BBC reported on Wednesday that British counterterrorism police were investigating after border officers seized cargo contaminated with uranium at Heathrow Airport last month. Pakistan today rejected the reports in British media that a uranium-tainted cargo package that landed at London’s Heathrow Airport last month originated from Karachi, saying the news is “not factual”.
The Sun newspaper, which first reported the news, said the uranium came from Pakistan, the report said, adding it was found in a shipment of scrap metal.
No information had been shared by the UK with Pakistan officially. Responding to the reports, a top Pakistani official said they were “not factual”.
The Dawn newspaper on Thursday says that “No information to this effect has been shared with us officially. We are confident that the reports are not factual,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra was quoted. It said according to Pakistani officials, the shipment did not originate in Pakistan, as is being claimed by British media.
On the evening of December 29 it is learnt that the cargo package arrived at Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 via Oman Air passenger flight WY 101, which arrived. The flight originated from Pakistan, where UK officials believe the package was checked in as cargo, and had a stopover in Muscat, Oman.
The package contained scrap metal and the uranium in question was “embedded into metal bars”. Upon arrival, the package was detected by regular airport scanners, which alerted Border Force officials to analyse the contents.
The Sun newspaper reported that the package was being shipped to UK-based Iranian nationals, with other media outlets saying it was shipped to a London-based business owned by Iranians.
