Two doctors went on trial in London today accused of being part of an Islamist cell planning murder "on a wholesale scale" by carrying out car bomb attacks in central London and at a packed Scottish airport last year.

Iraqi Bilal Abdulla, 29, and Jordanian Mohammed Asha, 28, were part of a small group that tried to set off bombs outside a busy nightclub and then tried a dramatic suicide attack by ram-raiding Glasgow Airport when their initial plans failed, the prosecution said.

The men wanted to punish the British people for their country's perceived persecution of Palestinian Muslims and those in Afghanistan and Iraq, the court heard.

"These men were intent on committing murder on an indiscriminate and wholesale scale," prosecutor Jonathan Laidlaw told the top security Woolwich Crown Court in east London.

"Apart from the shocking nature of the activity these two defendants were engaged in, the extraordinary thing about this case is that both these defendants are doctors," he said.

"They turned their attention away from the treatment of illness to the planning of murder."

The cell's plans only failed because of a mixture of good fortune and technical mistakes which meant the devices didn't explode, he said.

The first in what the prosecution said was to be a series of "spectaculars" was planned for central London. Two Mercedes cars packed with gas canisters, fuel containers and nails, were driven down from Scotland and in the early hours of June 29, 2007, left in the busy West End area of the capital.

One was parked outside Tiger Tiger, a nightclub packed with more than 500 revellers in the Haymarket, near Piccadilly Circus, while the second was left nearby. This, Laidlaw suggested, was a "secondary device" deliberately placed to catch those fleeing from the first explosion at the club.

But despite repeated attempts to set off the mobile phone detonators in the cars, neither vehicle exploded.

Having failed, the prosecution said, the bombers dramatically changed their plans, aware that the police and security services would be on to them through clues left in the cars.

"The change in approach was that the next attack was to be a suicide attack. There was to be no repeat of the failure of the devices in London," said Laidlaw.

"There was no change in the ultimate purpose that remained to kill and maim."

The next day, the bombers drove to Scotland. A Jeep Cherokee, also packed with fuel containers and gas canisters, was driven at speed into the international terminal at Glasgow Airport which was experiencing its busiest day of the year.

But the Jeep became stuck in the terminal doors and despite attempts to detonate the car using petrol bombs, the vehicle failed to explode.

Kafeel Ahmed, 28, the driver of the jeep died from burns he sustained, while Abdulla who was in the passenger seat survived. Laidlaw said Abdulla was a central figure in the plot while Asha, who was neither in London nor Glasgow, was an important member of the cell.

Their plan was to cause fear on a scale generated by the July 7, 2005 London bombings which killed 52 people, Laidlaw said adding that Abdulla would claim the devices were not meant to kill.

Abdulla worked as a junior doctor at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, Paisley, west of Glasgow. Asha, a neurologist, worked at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, Stoke-on-Trent.

Both deny conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions. The trial is due to last three months.