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Terrorists 'hiding in Tokyo'
28/09/2007 18:51 - (SA)
Tokyo - Police tightened security on Tokyo's subways this week after receiving a warning of an alleged terrorist attack, media and officials said on Friday.
Investigators were dispatched to several locations in Tokyo after the phone call on Wednesday, broadcaster TBS reported on Friday.
The caller told authorities that a terrorist group was hiding in central Tokyo and planned to conduct suicide attacks on the subways by Friday morning, TBS said.
The caller demanded about two million dollars in return for the information, TBS said.
Police were dispatched on Thursday to one location in downtown Tokyo, but there were no bombs or incidents, a police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. He refused to give other details.
Police asked Tokyo Metro, the city's main subway system, to increase vigilance without providing any explanation, subway spokesperson Hidekazu Hazeyama said.
Tokyo Metro found no suspicious objects or individuals and lowered its alert level to normal on Friday afternoon, he said.
The Sankei newspaper reported on Friday that a man called police and a Japanese embassy on Wednesday and said a terrorist group had brought bombs into Tokyo with plans to attack public transportation. The newspaper did not say in which country the embassy was located.
The man, who spoke English with an accent and was possibly a foreigner, demanded a reward for the information, the newspaper said.
US authorities told their Japanese counterparts of a similar demand for rewards several days earlier by possibly the same man in exchange for information about alleged planned terrorist attacks in the US, it said.
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