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Police search a property in Mansfield Street, London, believed to be connected to the bomber

Dutchman Jasper Schuringa didn’t hesitate when the al-Qaida attacker tried to set off his firebomb in a bid to kill the 278 passengers and 11 crew on board the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.[>


The film director turned action hero and ended up badly burned after launching himself – like Bruce Willis in Die Hard – across four other passengers.[>


He put out the incendiary with his bare hands and grabbed the bomber in a chokehold.[>


Just seconds before, Umar ­Farouk Abdulmutallab triggered the bomb strapped to his thigh.[>

Mr Schuringa, from Amsterdam, said: “Suddenly, we heard a bang. It sounded like a firecracker went off. Everybody panicked.[>


“Then someone screamed, ‘Fire, fire!’ I didn’t hesitate. I just jumped. There were flames coming from ­beneath his legs.[>


“I searched on his body parts and he had his pants open. He had something strapped to his legs.”[>


The have-a-go hero ripped the ­flaming bomb from the suspect’s leg and put it out with his hands, yelling for water before flight ­attendants arrived with fire ­extinguishers.[>


He led Abdulmutallab to the first class ­compartment and stripped his clothes from him before helping a crew ­member handcuff him.[>


He said other passengers applauded as he walked back to his own seat.[>


“My hands are pretty burned but I am fine,” he said. “I don’t feel like a hero. It was something that came ­completely naturally.[>


“I had to do ­something.” He added: “I am shaken up. I am ­happy to be here.” Fellow passenger Veena Saigal said: “He’s kind of a hero.”[>


As soon as the plane landed, ­Abdulmutallab was grabbed by police and is now being treated in hospital for third-degree burns.[>


Passenger Shama Chopra, 54, said the man was sitting in the front row of economy class when she heard several bangs that sounded like gunshots.[>


She said: “The man was on fire and the flames were so high they almost hit the roof. I thought we were all gone. Thank God, somehow the plane ­landed.”[>


Abdulmutallab – the last passenger to board – had flown from Lagos in ­Nigeria to Amsterdam’s Schiphol ­airport before catching the Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit.[>


US investigators were probing ­whether the attack was part of a wider plot and raised a “worldwide alert”.[>


Last night police raided the ­Central London flat of Abdulmutallab, who studied mechanical engineering at University College London ­between 2005 and 2008.[>


US reports said he was a terror suspect who had been known to ­authorities for at least two years.[>

Anti-terror police and MI5 ­officers were probing his phone records and known associates.[>


After his arrest, Abdulmutallab told investigators he had links to al-Qaida and had got the bomb from Yemen.[>


And it emerged his father, the former boss of Nigeria’s First Bank, had warned ­authorities his son was planning an ­attack.[>


Air passengers last night faced delays as UK ­airports launched a ­security crackdown.[>


And there was a ­further alert when a Lufthansa flight to Detroit landed in Iceland in order for ­“suspicious” bags to be searched.[>