Terror alert reported at transport hubs in UK

London, Jan 8, IRNA – Extra police have been deployed on rail networks and at Heathrow airport amid reports of a terror alert on Friday but there was no suggestions of an imminent attack.

'The threat level to the UK is severe, which means that an attack is highly likely, and has been since January 2010,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

“We will police accordingly and use a range of covert and overt tactics which remain under constant review,” the spokesman said.

He added that continued speculation about attacks served as a 'stark reminder of the real and enduring threat we continue to face from terrorist groups'.

The security alert comes after nine suspects from London, the Welsh capital of Cardiff and Stoke-on-Trent in central England were charged last month with preparing for acts of terrorism after being arrested during a series of dawn raids.

There has also been concern in recent months over what has been described as possible Mumbai-style attacks in Europe, including the UK.

In 2008, 166 people were killed by terrorists in a series of gun and grenade assaults in India.

Last month, Iraqi-born Swede Taimour Abdulwahab al Abdaly, who lived and studied in the UK, was killed in Stockholm after detonating a device in a car parked in a busy shopping street.

Britain restored the terror threat level facing the country to ‘severe’ ahead of hosting an international conference on Afghanistan hosted in London, when discussions also included the threat of terrorism in Yemen.

Severe is the fourth highest of five levels of threats behind ‘critical’ implying an imminent attack.

The threat was reduced to the third level ‘substantial’ in July 2009 for the first time since just before the 7/7 London bombings in 2005./end