First glimpse of 'God particle'

Scientists today said that the elusive "God particle", believed to be the building block of the universe, may have been glimpsed.

Researchers at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research near Geneva, do not yet have enough data to confirm the existence of Higgs boson but have narrowed the regions where it is likely to be found.

Teams at the Large Hadron Collider, nicknamed the "Big Bang machine", said two experiments had uncovered "hints" of the sub-atomic particle at the same mass.

British physicist Peter Higgs theorised its existence more than 40 years ago to explain why atoms have weight. Although it would be an enormous scientific breakthrough if the Higgs boson was found, officials at CERN have ruled out making any such announcement this year.