Security and intelligence experts are deeply worried by a new development in suicide bombing, the BBC has learned.

It has emerged that an al-Qaeda bomber who died last month while trying to blow up a Saudi prince in Jeddah had hidden the explosives inside his body.

Only the attacker died, but it is feared that the new development could be copied by others.

Experts say it could have implications for airport security, rendering traditional metal detectors “useless”.

Last month’s bombing left people wondering how one of the most wanted al-Qaeda operatives in Saudi Arabia could get so close to the prince in charge of counter-terrorism that he was able to blow himself up in the same room.

Western forensic investigators think they have the answer, and it is worrying them profoundly.

The explosives, they believe, were detonated by mobile phone.

Peter Neuman of Kings College London says the case will be studied intensively, and that there are “tremendous implications for airport security with the potential of making it even more complicated to get on to your plane”.

Saudi Royal Prince Mohammed bin-Nayef: slightly injured in the attack

“If it really is true that the metal detectors couldn’t detect this person’s hidden explosive device, that would mean that the metal detectors as they currently exist in airports are pretty much useless,” he said.

The bomber was a Saudi al-Qaeda fugitive who said he wanted to give himself up to the prince in person.

The prince took him at his word and gave him safe passage [ahem - Ed.] to his palace.

But there, once he got next to his target, the bomb inside him was detonated.

Miraculously the prince survived with minor injuries, but footage emerging this week shows a sizeable crater in the concrete floor and the bomber’s body blown in half.

It is believed the force of the blast went downwards which is why only the bomber died.

Joking aside (and we do like to smile sometimes in among all the doom and gloom we cover here), this is extremely serious news with major ramifications for the security industry and for the safety of millions of people.

The Saudi Royal Family is a major target for al Qaeda and its Saudi affiliates – but the potential for havoc that this device could cause has much wider implications – it will affect conflict zones and terror targets across the whole world.

Aviation and air travel is particularly worrisome – how will current security services be able to handle the new threat, if the reports that is is undetectable by regular scanners turn out to be correct?

This game-changing development could require a root and branch review of currently available equipment and possibly development of entirely new replacement technology, which could take years. There will also need to be a massive increase in vigilance – which will probably mean increased racial profiling, more security personnel, intimate searches; and ever longer delays and queues for travellers will become inevitable.

If only Islamic terrorists could channel their ingenuity for murder, torture and bloodshed to more positive directions, perhaps the people they claim to represent would not have to reside in some of the poorest and most backward hellholes in the world.

Perhaps all the fuss and hysteria over the British-developed whole body Passive Millimetre Wave X-ray technology in use at some major airports (including Heathrow) a few years ago, is going to turn out to be completely wide of the mark?

This may well prove to be an area where a momentary loss of personal privacy, providing it is discreetly done, will massively preferable to the possible alternative.

Yet another slice of Islamic Terror Tax.

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