US officials say that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, previously identified as Umar Mutallab, has now been charged with attempting to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 to Detroit on Friday.

Officials say the suspect, who is being treated for extensive burns at a hospital in Michigan, is a 23-year-old Nigerian and has possible links to al-Qaeda militants. A White House official said, "we believe this was an attempted act of terrorism".
 

A preliminary FBI analysis of the substance in Mr Abdulmutallab's incendiary device showed that it contained PETN, also one of the explosives used by Richard Reid, the shoe bomber convicted of attempting to blow up a plane en route to the United States after the 2001 terrorist attacks.
 

The Northwest Airlines flight departed from Amsterdam's Schiphol airport. It is still not known how the suspect managed to smuggle the incendiary device through security checks at Schiphol. However, it is now known that Mr Abdulmutallab was not on the US no-fly list and was therefore able to obtain a entry visa.
 

US media is reporting that the Nigerian told investigators that al-Qaeda operatives in Yemen had given him the device and instructions on how to use it.