LONDON — Three young British Muslim men went on trial in London on Monday, accused of plotting to set off multiple bombs in terrorist strikes that prosecutors say could have been deadlier than the 2005 London transit attacks.

Prosecutors say the men, fired up by the sermons of a US.-born al-Qaida preacher, hoped to cause carnage on a mass scale. But their plot was undone by mishaps with money and logistics, and ended in a police counterterrorism swoop last year.

Prosecution lawyer Brian Altman said Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, and 31-year-old Irfan Naseer, were central players in a plan to mount a terrorist attack “on a scale potentially greater than the London bombings in July 2005.”

Fifty-two commuters were killed when four al-Qaida-inspired suicide bombers blew themselves up on London’s bus and subway network on July 7, 2005.

The suspects are among a group of men and one woman arrested in September 2011 in the central English city of Birmingham. All three are charged with preparing for terrorism by plotting a bombing campaign, recruiting others and fundraising. Khalid and Naseer also are accused of traveling to Pakistan for terrorism training.

They have pleaded not guilty.