SEPTEMBER 19, 2008: A massive security operation surrounded the Lockerbie bomber’s transfer to Inverclyde Royal Hospital.

Libyan intelligence agent Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi was understood to be needing a scan during an outpatient appointment.

He was brought to the IRH in a Reliance prisoner transport van, flanked by seven police motorbikes and escorted by two police cars with their lights flashing.

A police helicopter monitored the scene from above.

Swarms of TV crews and newspaper reporters were also outside the hospital awaiting his dramatic arrival.

Doctors were believed to have ordered the tests because of concerns about al-Megrahi’s medical condition.

Megrahi was taken from his cell at HMP Greenock to the hospital under close watch.

It is understood no wards were closed at the IRH but there was tight security throughout the building.

Al-Megrahi’s lawyer and a representative from the Libyan embassy were reported to have accompanied the bomber, who has been in jail since he was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001.

Resident William Milloy of Larkfield Road, said: “We’ve been looking out the window and saw all the press. I thought it was some celebrity.”

A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said they would not comment on the matter.

A Scottish Prison Service spokeswoman added: “We do not comment on individual prisoners.”

And health chiefs also refused to comment.

Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years after being convicted of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 and murdering 270 people.

He lost an appeal in 2002 but was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time.

All 259 men, women and children on board died as did 11 residents of Lockerbie, who were killed when aircraft wreckage rained down, causing a huge fireball which devastated parts of the town. Some bodies were never found.

Megrahi had denied being guilty of Britain’s worst terror attack and was appealing his conviction at the time.

He died in Libya in 2012.