Officials considered closing airport

BRITAIN was on terror alert last night amid fears of an al-Qaida attack.

Ministers and senior police officers admitted they had considered closing Heathrow airport but instead decided to use the army to create a ring of steel around it.

Around 1,700 extra police officers were at Heathrow and other key London sites and security was also beefed up at Manchester airport, including spot checks by armed officers.

Meetings of Cobra, the Cabinet Office's civil contingencies committee, have been called and police warned there could be more operations involving the British Army.

The Ministry of Defence refused to confirm if military jets were patrolling the skies over the capital.

At one point yesterday, Labour Party chairman Dr John Reid appeared to compare the current threat to the September 11 attacks.

The former Northern Secretary told reporters in Manchester: "This is about a threat of the nature that massacred thousands of people in New York."

Dr Reid later said his remarks had been "misinterpreted", adding: "I was attempting to make clear this is not some sort of game, it's not some sort of PR exercise."

British Home Secretary David Blunkett said: "We hope we can get through the next few days without an incident. I hope we can."

The 450 troops drafted in to Heathrow with armoured vehicles were continuing patrols amid fears that terrorists could be on the loose with a shoulder-held missile launcher similar to that used in an attack on an Israeli jet in Kenya last year.

Heathrow is one of only two airports in Britain used by the Israeli airline El Al. The other is Stansted.

At prime minister's questions Tony Blair told MPs: "Terrorist arrests are happening in virtually every European country and many other countries ... and the result is that we occasionally do have to take measures that we would prefer not to take but are necessary in order to give people the protection and security they need."

The intelligence about a possible threat to Heathrow was received by police and passed to the Government.

Mr Blunkett said shutting Heathrow was considered but ruled out because it would have handed a victory to the terrorists and been "catastrophic" for Britain's trade and economy.

Asked about the nature of the intelligence the Home Secretary said: "The immediate threats are not verifiable therefore we are working on finding out more information."

At Heathrow several units of soldiers with armoured vehicles were again stationed by the model of Concorde at the main entrance while military trucks were positioned outside key buildings.

Stop-checks on vehicles also continued on approach roads in towns and villages around the airport in a bid to eliminate the risk of terrorists firing a missile at any jets landing or taking off. Asked if military jets were patrolling the overcast skies above London, a Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "A number of prudent measures are in place to deal with the threat to

security.