Atom smasher scientist held as terror suspect

A scientist at the giant CERN European particle lab has been arrested on suspicion of having links to terrorist organisations in Algeria, police said today.

The European Nuclear Physics Organisation said the physicist, who was not named was arrested yesterday by French police.

The lab said today the man was working under contract with an outside institute and had no contact with anything that could have been used for terrorism.

CERN specialises in high-energy particle physics and has been working for years to build the world's biggest atom smasher.