TWO men caught rickshaws to escape after leaving car bombs parked in London's busy West End, a court heard today.

Bilal Abdulla, 29 - who is also accused of a terror attack at Glasgow Airport - and Kafeel Ahmed, 28, stationed one of the vehicles outside a packed nightclub and the other in front of a bustling bus stop, Woolwich Crown Court in London was told.

The cars, packed with gas canisters, petrol and nails, were left in the capital on June 29 last year, but failed to explode because the initiation devices did not work properly, the jury heard.

Prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw, QC, said the two men were captured on CCTV leaving the area in the early hours of that morning.

Ahmed was seen dumping into a bin an umbrella he had apparently been carrying to shield his face from cameras.

At 1.39am he boarded a rickshaw in Piccadilly Circus and Abdulla also adopted the same mode of transport to get away from the area.

The two men met up in Edgware Road at 2.05am, just 30 minutes after they had left the bomb-rigged cars, the court heard.

Ahmed died in hospital after a second attempted terrorist attack, on Glasgow Airport, the following day.

Abdulla is standing trial with Mohammed Asha, 28, accused of conspiring to murder and to cause explosions likely to endanger life. They deny the charges.

The court heard Abdulla repeatedly tried to stop a black cab as he ran through the West End and turned to a rickshaw driver who was waiting nearby.

Ahmed escaped by rickshaw and followed the same route as his friend to Marble Arch.

Both men then walked independently to the Edgware Road, where they met up just after 2am, said Mr Laidlaw.

They were heading to the Newham Hotel in Romford Road, Forest Gate, East London, where they had booked rooms for the night.

Before coming together the pair had been in frequent phone contact with each other and both had attempted repeatedly to detonate the car bombs by dialling each of the two phones they had wired in to the Mercedes, it was claimed.

Inside the car, parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub, they had left almost 900 50mm nails, weighing 1.75kg.

The court was told that tests on the bombs they had left behind revealed they were vehicle based incendiary devices' fuelled by propane gas to create an explosion and fire. They would have triggered the explosion of the gas cylinders, accelerated by the petrol poured into the car.

But the bombs failed to explode because the fuel-to-air ratio was too high and any flame created by the initial mobile phone trigger was extinguished because there was not enough oxygen in the car.

From east London, Abdulla and Ahmed fled to Stoke on the train via Stansted airport, after Abdulla made a call to Asha.

This was the first call either of the two bombers appears to have made. It was Asha that they spoke to first,' said Mr Laidlaw.

The court was told that Asha, a doctor at a Staffordshire hospital, was supposed to be on call that night. But he ignored a call from the hospital.

Later, Abdulla - a doctor at Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley - booked a taxi, which picked up him and Ahmed from nearby Tolkein Way, and took them back to the train station.

After his friend left, Asha, using his login ashamo', visited the BBC website to view news stories on the failed bombings, said the prosecutor.

Just before 7.30pm the pair boarded a train back to Glasgow, which arrived at 11.35pm, and they were back in their Scottish headquarters in Neuk Crescent, Houston, Renfrewshire, within half an hour, the jury was told.

Mr Laidlaw added: "By Saturday afternoon Abdulla and Kafeel Ahmed had become the most wanted men in the country.' The trial continues.