A love of punk and hard rock anthems by The Clash and Led Zeppelin led to a British man being hauled off a plane bound for London by police on terrorism fears, newspapers reported.

Indian-born Harraj Mann, 23, played "London's Calling" by The Clash and Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" through the stereo of a taxi he caught to Durham and Tees Valley Airport in northern England.


The taxi driver, however, grew suspicious of his passenger after listening to the lyrics of his chosen songs and alerted the authorities after they reached the airport.

Two police officers boarded Mann's flight to London's Heathrow airport shortly before take-off last Thursday.

"I got frogmarched off the plane in front of everyone, got my bags searched, asked every question you can think of," Mann, a mobile phone salesman, told his local newspaper, the Hartlepool Mail, on Monday -- a story that was picked up by the national press on Wednesday.

"I was being held for questioning under the Terrorism Act," he said.

By the time Mann was set free his plane had already departed.

The offending lyrics by The Clash include the lines: "London calling from the faraway towns, now war is declared and battle come down.

"London calling to the underworld, come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls."

"Immigrant Song", for its part, starts: "The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands, to fight the horde singing and crying Valhalla, I'm coming!"

A spokeswoman for the Durham Police confirmed that a man was escorted from the London-bound flight, questioned by police and released without charge.

"Safety is paramount and we respond to concerns from members of the public in the way they would expect us to," she said.

"In this case the report was made with the best of intentions and we would not want to discourage people from contacting us with genuine concerns regarding security."

Apparently they were holding placards outside Menwith Hill air base (used for "renditions"?).

Quite right too ! Assault with a pension book can be very dangerous !

I'm trying to remember the exact details of the guy that got arrested for texting the lyrics of a Clash song last year. I think he sent them to the wrong person and also ended up down the nick.

It is not the first time Clash lyrics have attracted the wrath of UK authorities. In June 2004 Bristol man Mike Devine was arrested at his office after sending a text message including words from the Clash song Tommy Gun. There was speculation as to how the text message came to police attention - they insisted Devine had mis-sent the text and that they don't spend all their time reading everyone's messages.

www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/03/text_punk/ for more.

Devine was released once he'd convinced investigators he played in a tribute band.

Just think of the penalties for saying that the very nice, honest and trustworthy Mr Blair is a B-Liar on the internet !!!!