Terror alert in Florida's Alligator Alley

Police closed a 20 mile stretch of road in southern Florida after detaining three men suspected of terrorist activity.

Bomb sniffing dogs alerted police to materials in two cars stopped by officers on the Everglades road, known as Alligator Alley.

Explosive charges were used to blast open what appeared to be a backpack taken from one of the vehicles, said EJ Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

“The information we have is very specific,” he said, adding that the three men were detained, but had not been arrested.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had told people to be on the look-out for the cars after a waitress in Calhoun told police she overheard three Middle Eastern men discussing a possible attack on Miami.

She said the men were talking about amounts of explosives and warned that Americans would “cry on 9/13,” said Miami Police Lieutenant Bill Schwartz.

The vehicles were stopped on Interstate 75, the main east-west road from Naples to Fort Lauderdale, at about 6am local time. It was still closed more than six hours later.