European laws meant to stop terrorists obtaining the ingredients to make bombs like the one that partially detonated at Parsons Green are too lax, a report warns.

Analysis of regulations controlling the sale, marketing and use of potentially lethal chemicals like triacetone and triperoxide (TATP) - the key ingredients of the so-called “mother of Satan” bomb - has revealed “problems and challenges” throughout Europe.

Since 2014, all 28 EU countries are required to ensure that the general public cannot buy pure forms of controlled substances without a licence to show that they have a legitimate professional use for them.

Businesses selling and storing these chemicals also are required to alert authorities about suspicious transactions and stock thefts or disappearances.

But recent attacks on the West London Tube, Manchester arena and Brussels station, as well as the blast at a bomb factory near Barcelona, have highlighted how terror cells are still acquiring raw ingredients, often in purer forms than legally permitted.