Bin Laden skinned by techies

Thousands of gamers around the world are busy downloading a virtual model of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden so they can blow him away in a game of Quake.

Cyberextruder.com, a web company that specialises in creating realistic 'skins' for computer games, is responsible for the craze.

Skins are typically user made add-ons for first person shoot-em-up games such as Quake, Half Life and Unreal, allowing you to modify the appearance of your character. Cyberextruder specialises in creating lifelike model skins based on photographs.

And this is where the idea began. Employees at Cyberextruder apparently used photographs of bin Laden to created the skin for the Quake III: Arena and Unreal games. Although not initially posted on the company's website, demand grew to such an extent that the bin Laden skin appeared for public download.

"Take out your anger and frustration!! Download a free Osama bin Laden skin for Unreal Tournament!! Frag his sorry ass all day and all night! Nuthin' like a close up head shot to make ya feel better! This is the most fun when it's played as the senseless 'bot that he really is!" reads the accompanying blurb.

The skin is apparently proving a big hit with gamers. Cyberextruder claims that 10,000 people have already downloaded the skin since it appeared a few days ago, which means there are a lot of very angry gamers out there.

There are no plans to create a George Bush skin so the two won't be able to go head to head in a frag fest.

The skins for Unreal and Quake III can be downloaded here.