LONDON, July 2: The medical doctor arrested in Liverpool in connection with the series of attempted car bombs may be a victim of mistaken identity, The Muslim News here has claimed in a press release issued on Monday.

Quoting one of his professional colleagues the MN said the doctor, who is a postgraduate trainee from Bangalore in India and not from Middle East, may have been confused with another associate from Halton Hospital, who went to Australia a year ago.

“I believe it may be a case of mistaken identity,” the colleague told The Muslim News. He said he was convinced that his associate was at least “99 per cent innocent.”

The colleague said the suspect, who began work at the hospital just under a year ago, was well known in the community as he had worked with him in various hospital and community projects.

He believed he may have been detained because he had mobile chip of the other doctor and was using his internet account after he went to Australia. He was also only the second driver of the car in which he was arrested.

The person, which reports say was 26, was understood to have been detained when he was travelling home from Penny Lane Mosque late on Saturday night and was taken to Admiral Police Station.

The colleague said that he had gone to the police after he discovered his associate was missing on Sunday, when he learnt he had been detained.

He said the police asked about the other person and told the police that he had gone to Australia.

The colleague also learned that the suspected doctor’s old and current addresses (Hatherley Street in Toxteth and Ramilies Road near Penny Lane in Allerton) had been raided by the police.

Meanwhile, detectives investigating the failed car bombings at Glasgow airport and in London have arrested two more people, taking the total number held to seven. The Metropolitan police sources told media that the men, aged 28 and 25, were detained in the Paisley area west of Glasgow on Sunday night.

They are not thought to be of British origin.

Police have been given more time to question three people held in London. Two of those being held by police are doctors.

Dr Mohammed Asha, 26, who worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, was arrested on the M6 in Cheshire on Saturday night along with a 27-year-old woman thought to be his wife.

And an Iraqi man, Bilal Abdulla, suspected of the attack on Glasgow Airport worked as a doctor in Paisley.

The fifth person, a 26-year-old man, was arrested in Liverpool on Sunday.