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UK boosts anti-terror measures
23/05/2003 15:50 - (SA)
LOndon - Police stepped up airport security on Friday and put up concrete blocks around the Westminster Palace, a move designed to stop any terrorist attempt to slam a truck bomb into the seat of Britain's parliament.
Police said the moves were part of continuing security operations and there had been no specific terror threat.
The blocks on roads next to parliament buildings will remain in place for the foreseeable future, said officials.
Security at the site in central London has been tight, with armed police on guard outside the main entrances, since the September 11 2001 attacks in the United States.
Police also strengthened security at Heathrow Airport, west of the capital, said a spokesperson for Scotland Yard, but would not give details.
In February, about 450 soldiers and armoured vehicles were deployed around the airport, the busiest in Europe, for several days during a heightened alert amid fears that terrorists could use a shoulder-held missile to bring down a jet.
Public warned to be vigilant
Scotland Yard said: "These measures are being carried out on a precautionary basis in light of events around the world.
"There is no specific intelligence of places, events or people in the UK that would lead us at the moment to issue specific warnings to the public."
The spokesperson added: "While our message is still 'alert not alarm', we would reiterate our earlier appeals for the public to remain vigilant and aware and report anything suspicious to police."
Lord Ivon Brabazon, chairman of the House of Lords administration committee which is responsible for security matters in the upper chamber of parliament, said security at Westminster Palace was "under constant review in the light of the changing assessment of the terrorist threat".
The latest moves were "part of a more-general strengthening of security being carried out in central London on a precautionary basis in the light of world events, and action being taken in other countries similarly under threat of terrorist attack".
Increased threat from al-Qaeda
The BBC reported that Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, Britain's domestic security agency, had recently met George Tenet, the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency.
They were believed to have discussed the increased threat of terrorism from Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
The heightened security measures in Britain come after a series of suicide bomb blasts rocked the Moroccan city of Casablanca last Friday, killing 41 people.
On May 12 in Saudi Arabia, car bombings targeting expatriate compounds in Riyadh, widely attributed to al-Qaeda, killed 25 people plus nine bombers.
Britain was the most loyal military and political ally of the United States in the war on Iraq, a conflict which sparked Muslim anger across the world. - Sapa-AFP
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