MI5 bans cold gel packs because its chemicals can be used to make bombs

Cold gel packs are used by sportsmen to reduce swellings in muscle injuries but the chemicals that they contain can also be used to make bombs. Hence, it is being banned and a high street retailer was asked told to stop selling these cold gel packs by British security chiefs.

It seems a terrorist plot to use them to make bombs has been reported and, the Office of Security and Counter Terrorism, along with MI5, have informed the sport store chain to stop sale of the cold gel.
As the Home Office has indicated – the intention is to detect and disrupt terrorist threats and work closely with retailers to improve security in the supply chain because it is vital that plans of would-be terrorists to buy such chemicals be nipped in the bud.
Incidentally, one chemical commonly found in gel packs was used by Timothy McVeigh in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in which 168 people were killed and another 680 others were injured. Moreover, it was used in the 2011 Delhi bombings that killed 17 and also in the car bomb that went off in Oslo before Anders Breivik went on his killing spree.

It is difficult to detect the gel using security scans, hence there are fears that it could be smuggled onto planes or into buildings that are terror targets.