Wanted: the Madrid 6

Six men were named today by a judge as suspected members of a terror cell responsible for the Madrid bombings.

According to intelligence sources the men may have fled to Britain following the rush-hour carnage on 11 March in which 191 commuters died and more than 1,500 were injured.

Their leader is Jamal Ahmidan, a convicted drug smuggler who converted to radical Islamic beliefs and became a "holy warrior" after his last spell in prison.

Judge Juan del Olmo today released their photographs and signed an international warrant for their arrests. Scotland Yard's antiterrorist branch is liaising with the Spanish investigation and has received a copy of the arrests warrants-Ahmidan, a Moroccan, operates-under two aliases, "El Chino" - the Chinese - or "Mowgli". He spent time in a Moroccan jail for drugs trafficking.

Sources in Spain say he may have swapped 54lb of cannabis for the 220lb of dynamite used in Madrid.

The other five men were named as: Said Berraj, Abdennabi Kounjaa alias Abdallah, brothers Mohammed and Rachid Oulad Akcha and Tunisian Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet. Some of them are thought to have made or planted the bombs, while a number are related to suspects already arrested.

Sources close to the investigation said fingerprints of at least one of the men named today were found in a Madrid house identified by police as the likely bomb factory.

The fingerprints of two suspects who have already been arrested were also found by detectives in the house in the Madrid suburb of Chinchon. Launching a public appeal to aid the manhunt, Spanish interior minister Angel Acebes said the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group was the focus of the probe.

The group is closely linked to Salafia Jihadia, blamed by the Moroccan government for the Casablanca bombings last year.

Another man, named as Otman El Gnaout, today became the 24th suspect arrested over the Madrid bombings. Spanish police now have 20 people in custody, 14 of whom have been charged with mass murder or collaborating with or belonging to a terrorist group.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Office is to scale back its warnings about terrorist threats to holidaymakers for fear that they spread unnecessary panic.

Fewer "don't fly" advice notes will be issued in future, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told MPs today. Tourists will be informed of possible threats then left to make up their own minds about whether to travel.