European ports remain on alert after terror threat

LONDON -- New terror warnings have led to tighter security, including random searches and interrogations, at ports across Europe.

Authorities received a warning Nov. 7 about a possible attack on Nov. 9, apparently because the numeric date is Sept. 11 -- 9/11 -- in reverse, said Hans-Joergen Bonnichsen, a senior official of the Danish Civil Security Service.

"That is what made it interesting," Bonnichsen said.

Though that date has passed, ports are still on alert. British authorities said Tuesday they were taking precautions with trucks at ports including Dover on England's south coast. Increased security also was reported in France, in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and at Baltic Sea ports in Scandinavia.

French and Dutch security services had warned that terrorists might drive an explosives-laden truck onto a ferry heading for Britain, according to British Broadcasting Corp. radio. The report said ferry ports had been placed on "heightened emergency" alert.

"We have seen in a number of continental European ports' security being stepped up over the weekend, largely because of these very fears," said David Osler, industrial editor of shipping newspaper Lloyd's List.

Robin Dodridge, the security chief at Dover's port, told the BBC that his and other ports in Britain have received information telling them to further tighten security leading up to Christmas.

The British government said the security alert was not the result of a specific, credible warning. On Tuesday, the Department for Transport said, "Threat levels to British maritime interests remain unchanged," the British advisory said.

In France, ferries out of Calais increased security to nearly the highest level, operational manager Jean-Denis Ringot said Tuesday.

'Moved it up a notch'

At the port itself, security has been stepped up since Friday, with increased car patrols around the port area and a special watch on packages and foreigners, Ringot said.

"Vigilance had been stepped up since Sept. 11. Now, we've moved it up a notch," he said.

Governments in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania stepped up port security following a general warning last week from several European law enforcement agencies that terrorists could try to place a bomb aboard a passenger ferry, said Latvian Security Police spokeswoman Kristina Apse.

Border guards at ports in the coastal nations said they have been ordered to search ships and passenger ferries, as well as vehicles aboard several ferries that arrive daily to the Latvian and Estonian capitals from Finland, Germany and Sweden.