Terror police swoop on cargo ship in Channel

Anti-terrorist officers today intercepted and boarded a cargo ship in the English Channel in what Scotland Yard described as a ‘‘major security operation’’.

The swoop, which was carried out with the help of the Royal Navy and HM Customs and Excise, was ordered after police received a tip off that the vessel may be carrying terrorist material.

Security sources said they were ‘‘acting on intelligence’’ that the vessel may have posed a risk to the UK, but there was no specific intelligence that anthrax may have been involved.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said the ship was being inspected and the crew was currently being interviewed and was ‘‘co-operating fully’’.

He said the ship had sailed from Mauritius and was believed to be carrying a cargo of sugar.

The vessel had reportedly stopped off in Djibouti, next to Somalia in the Horn of Africa, which has been linked with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaida terror network.

It was intercepted off the Sussex coast, about 30 miles south of Beachy Head, according to unconfirmed reports. The Ministry of Defence said it was travelling east to west through the Channel.

There was no immediate danger to people living in the area, according to Scotland Yard.

The ship was boarded in international waters in accordance with international law, a police spokesman said.

‘‘At this stage it is not possible to say how long officers will remain aboard the vessel or how long the inspection will take to complete,’’ he added.

HMS Sutherland was involved in the operation, the Ministry of Defence said.

‘‘The ship was boarded at around 8am this morning as part of an ongoing operation. It was travelling from east to west through the Channel,’’ said an MoD spokesman.

The crew of the ship were understood to be Indian.