British terror alert sparks global airport security boost

PARIS: Stringent security measures were enforced at airports around the world on Thursday after British police announced they had foiled a plot to blow up passenger jets to the United States with explosives hidden in hand luggage.

Airports worldwide beefed up security measures on passengers and luggage travelling to and from Britain and the United States, causing travel delays and flight cancellations on all five continents and leaving many passengers stranded.

London's Heathrow airport, one of the busiest in the world, was badly hit.

An official with the European air traffic control coordinator Eurocontrol said that most European flights bound for London had not taken off.

Britain's National Air Traffic Services grounded a number of flights on Thursday morning but the British Airports Authority, which runs Heathrow and six other airports, said the restrictions were lifted in the afternoon.

Many British airlines cancelled all remaining flights Thursday, despite the green light to fly once again.

British Airways said it had cancelled about 400 flights, mainly domestic and shorthaul, from both Heathrow and London Gatwick. Normally it flies about 820 flights out of these two airports on a typical August day.

Passengers on all planes leaving British airports, including on domestic and transit flights, were banned from taking hand luggage on board other than essential items such as money, tickets, keys, medicine and spectacles, though without the cases.

Apart from baby milk, which had to be tasted, all liquids were forbidden.

The United States raised the threat level for incoming commercial flights from Britain to "severe or red", the highest US level. It banned all liquids "including beverages, hair gels and lotions" on outgoing planes and asked foreign operators to impose the same ban on flights into the United States.

Beginning on Friday, security screening of carry-on items will expand significantly from levels imposed at two dozen cities on Thursday, said Jim May, chief executive of the Air Transport Association, at a news conference.

The trade group for the biggest airlines said the changes would involve additional checks at boarding gates but offered no details.

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement on its Web site that there will be more hand searches of bags at security checkpoints and a bag check at the gate immediately prior to boarding the aircraft.

Authorities have banned travelers from carrying liquids and other gel-based products such as toothpaste and makeup onto planes. Those items are permitted in checked luggage.

Draconian hand luggage restrictions similar to those imposed by London and Washington were introduced in Australia, Canada, Ghana, Kenya, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland and by a number of individual airlines, such as US carrier Delta and Austrian Airlines.

In Ottawa, officials even stopped the sale of coffee or other drinks beyond airport security checkpoints, according to reports. Border officials at land crossings between Canada and the United States were also on alert.

Elsewhere in Asia and Europe, airport authorities ramped up security patrols and X-ray checks, in some cases scanning passengers' shoes, while sniffer dogs searching for explosives padded up and down hallways.

Countries affected included Argentina, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, India, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Thailand and Spain, where 191 people died in an extremist attack on trains in 2004.

French authorities announced random searches on cross-Channel Eurostar train services connecting Paris and Brussels to London while Paris airport authorities warned travellers heading to Britain, Israel and the United States to arrive early to complete the extra security checks in time.

Italy boosted surveillance around "sensitive sites, particularly buildings that could be associated with the United Kingdom", although Prime Minister Romano Prodi told reporters he did not see any particular threat to Italy itself.

Meanwhile long queues and delays were reported at Indian airports Friday as authorities stepped up security after Britain said it had foiled plans to blow up flights bound for the United States.

Additional dog squads and bomb disposal and detection teams were pressed into service at all major airports. Dustbins were being cleared every 30 minutes, the United News of India agency reported, quoting unnamed officials.

Security measures had already been stepped up ahead of the country's Independence Day on Tuesday next week, police said.

India's Intelligence Bureau had on Tuesday received information that two US carriers flying out of New Delhi and Mumbai airports could be the next terror targets, private NDTV network cited unnamed officials as saying.

Paris, Washington, New Delhi, Friday, AFP, Reuters