LONDON, Dec 24: Uranium 238 and other material that could be used to make a radiological bomb has been found in an underground Al Qaeda base near Kandahar, Britain’s Daily Telegraph reported on Monday.

When anti-Taliban forces seized the base this month they found various kinds of dangerous materials stored in hundreds of drums, jars and metal cases in a tunnel complex, the daily said.

A regional official was quoted as saying low-grade uranium 238 and cyanide were among the material.

The Telegraph said that while Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda did not possess the technology to make a Hiroshima-type nuclear bomb, they could use the radioactive material to make a radiological or “dirty” bomb that could contaminate a large part of a city.

American sources quoted by the paper said Osama could have procured the uranium in Russia, in a former Soviet republic, in China or in Pakistan.—AFP