Passengers from 14 countries face full-body pat downs at airports

Passengers travelling to the US from fourteen countries face new security measures at airports from today (January 4).

Visitors flying into the US from Nigeria, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and nine other countries will face full-body pat downs before boarding planes.

The procedures were announced as a result of a failed plot to blow up a Detroit bound US airliner. On Christmas day, a Nigerian, believed to have been radicalized in London and trained in the Yemen, on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 set off a device and was subdued by passengers and crew.

In a statement the Transportation Security Administration said that “every individual flying into the US from anywhere in the world traveling from or through nations that are state sponsors of terrorism or other countries of interest will be required to go through enhanced screening.”