'All I could feel was pure hatred.'

SPINNING round, fag in hand, the man dubbed Britain's answer to 24's Jack Bauer looked in shock at the mayhem unfolding before him.

In front of John Smeaton, a Jeep Cherokee exploded into a roaring ball of flame.

In his hand a half-smoked cigarette fizzled out as he stared aghast at the blazing carnage. "I ran up there to leather him. He was swinging at me, shouting Allah this and Allah that."

John, 31, felt the white-hot blast from the inferno lick across his face.

Astonished, he watched as a 6ft man stumbled from the wreckage and began to ATTACK police officers.

"I just shouted, 'F***ing come on then' and dashed towards him," said John. "I didn't think - there was no time. I just acted."

Have-a-go hero John today reveals for the first time the full story of the Glasgow Airport terror attacks.

He captured the hearts of the nation with his electrifying account of the failed car bomb on TV news - and coined catchphrases such as: "This is Glasgow - we'll just set aboot yet."

A hilarious website has been set up in his honour, where proud Brits have clubbed together to put 1,200 pints behind the bar for him at the Glasgow Airport Holiday Inn.

But despite his international fame, John himself has been elusive since the attacks - until the News of the World tracked him down to a pub in rural Cambridgeshire.

Now John, from Erskine, Renfrewshire, has given a gripping minute-by-minute account of what unfolded in front of the terminal last week - and offers his own no-punches-pulled verdict on terror in the UK today.

He said: "I don't know what's not getting through to these people. "We already understand that you don't like us. Killing an airport full of innocent men, women and children is not going to make us understand that any better - nor is it going to change who we are. "Then I saw other Glaswegians weighing in too. They were all giving him what for. "

"I hope my actions and the actions of everyone else that day show that Britain will not stand for it.

"And if any more extremists are still wanting to rise up and start trouble, know this: we'll rise right back up against you.

"New York, Madrid, London, Paisley...we're all in this together and make no mistake, none of us will hold back from putting the boot in."

The night before the attack last Saturday, John had little idea what lay in store for him.

He said: "I knew it was going to be busy because it was the first day of the school holidays.

"I got down to work at about 11am and the place was mobbed. I was due to look after terminal two, but my mate Kit Kat - we call him that because he's always having a break - wanted to swap, so I agreed to look after the main building.

"If I'd gone to terminal two, I would never been involved. Call it fate, call it whatever you like."

As more and more cases arrived to be loaded onto the planes and the shift wore on, John forgot about a stack of six golf bags due to leave on a Thomas Cook flight at 2.55pm.

He said: "I was tied up with something else so I shouted over to Fred Slaughter to see if he would take the golf bags out to the plane. " I've never seen a man fighting with such anger before, not even at kicking-out time in Paisley."

We call Fred 'The Wingman' because he once drove the baggage truck into the wing of an EasyJet plane.

"Fred got straight on it, but I knew that even so, the flight would end up delayed and I was going to get rapped.

"Old Paw Broon - he's Paul Brown, my boss - saw I was looking upset, so he said to me, 'Don't worry about it, just go for a fag'.

"So at about three o'clock I was going outside for a smoke. I only got two or three draws into my second one before I heard a commotion at the front of the building. I thought, 'What is that?' and walked round the corner to see what was going on."

The sight that met John's eyes was straight out of an action movie. A Jeep Cherokee had smashed into the front of the airport's main terminal building and was already ablaze.

"It was only about 20 yards away from me," said John. "My first thought was, 'Jeez-o, that's a bad accident'.

"Then this guy burst out of the driver door covered in flames and started running about the place. A second chap got out of the passenger side. My first instinct was to help."

But a fraction of a second later, John was astonished to see one of the men rounding on a policeman.

"I saw a copper go up to him to help put the flames out, but then the other guy, who I found out later was Bilal Abdulla, just started swinging for him," recalled John.

"He was massive - and he was going straight for the polis.

"Instinct just kicked in. I heard myself saying, 'That's no right. He's not hitting that copper - no chance'.

"I ran up there to leather him. I piled in and tried to get a kick in.

"He was swinging at me, shouting Allah this and Allah that, and at that stage I started to get a vague idea of what was going on.

"Then I saw other Glaswegians weighing in too. They were all giving him what for. I think some guy banjoed him on the side of the head.

"The fight was still going on, but I span round and saw the driver, Kafeel Ahmed. He was head to toe in flame. Abdulla was still fighting. I've never seen a man fighting with such anger before, not even at kicking-out time in Paisley town centre.

"Then Mary from security ran over, shouting, 'This man's injured'.

"She took me to a guy, who I found out later was called Michael Kerr, who was lying on the floor with his leg broken.

"Mary and I grabbed him and dragged him further away from the vehicle because we were terrified it was going to explode.

"It was like I said at the time, if you chuck a can of Lynx onto a bonfire the flames come shooting out the top. It was like that."

After carrying Michael to the safety of the car park, John took off his fleece and wrapped it round Michael's quivering shoulders - before weighing straight back into the fray.

"At this stage the police had the culprits under control," said John. "Ahmed and Abdulla were pinned down and there were cops everywhere.

"I looked straight into Ahmed's eyes. His whole face was red raw and the skin was hanging off it. All I could feel for him was pure hatred.

"But I don't think they should face the death penalty - it would make them martyrs for their cause.

"We don't kill people over here. That's not how we do things. They should both spend the rest of their lives in a jail cell."

John gave a statement to police as the media arrived. Then TV news crews from around the world spotted John and got him to give his own account of the failed attack.

The next day, John turned up at the airport as usual - but soon realised he was in no fit state for work.

"I couldn't concentrate and kept feeling over-emotional," he said. "In the end my boss said to take as much time off as I need to get over it.

"So I've been trout fishing and played on the Xbox - they're the two great loves of my life."

For the next 24 hours, John was blissfully unaware of his growing fame - until a friend showed him the website set up in his honour.

He said: "I went straight on it and I had the best laugh I've had in years. I'm pleased people have found humour in something so serious."

On Thursday John headed south to Cambridge with his parents Catherine, 68, and Iain, 66, for a cousin's wedding, and has enjoyed the opportunity to lay low.

Now John plans to go back to work as soon as possible - and start claiming his pints at the Holiday Inn.

"I'll treat everyone at work to some drinks but I don't think I'll get through them all," he laughed.

"I'm going to see if I can get the leftover money donated to a charity for soldiers in Iraq. They deserve a pint much more than I do."

He modestly added: "I'm no hero. I know 99.9 per cent of the British public would do exactly the same thing.

"I just hope everything that happened has put the message across that we will not stand for this in Britain."