Two British men with plane-spotting gadgets being questioned in Delhi

The Delhi Police are questioning two British nationals who were staying at the Radisson Hotel near the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here and were found in possession of some high-tech gadgets for tracking aircraft as well as binoculars and maps.

The two men, Stephen Hampston, in his mid-40s, and Steven Martin, in the mid-50s, were picked up for questioning by the police yesterday, official sources said.

The men had checked into the hotel on Saturday and the hotel authorities informed the police about them after a waiter noticed some suspicious activity. Police in Delhi and other parts of India are on a high alert after Saturday's bomb blast in Pune which killed 10 people and injured 56 others.

The sources said the duo were also being questioned by officials of the Intelligence Bureau.

The officials were examining the equipment the men were using, which can capture details of aircraft hundreds of kilometres away. They also had maps of the IGI Airport, downloaded from Google, as well as powerful binoculars and other gadgets.

The two men are understood to have told the police that the equipment was used only for aeroplane spotting, which they said was their hobby

NNN