Subway terror threat was hoax

THE subway terrorist threat that gripped New York last weekend was a hoax stemming from false intelligence provided by a normally reliable informant, US law enforcement officials were quoted as saying.

According to newspaper and television reports, the unidentified officials said the informant - believed to be from Pakistan - had admitted leading investigators astray about a plot to bomb the New York subway system.

The threat, which was unusually specific as to time and place, was taken very seriously by city officials who issued a high alert and flooded the subway network with extra police and National Guard troops.