UK raises alert level to ‘severe’

NEW DELHI: The United Kingdom increased its terror alert from “substantial’’ to “severe” based on Indian intelligence input warning of a possible attack before January 26.

The increased terror alert, according to Britain’s Sunday Times, comes after the intelligence bureau told Britain's MI5 that a hijacked Indian passenger plane could be crashed somewhere in Britain.

The report said that MI5 was told about the suspected plot linked to Al Qaeda in Pakistan to hijack an Air India or Indian Airlines flight from Mumbai to Delhi. The report further claimed that the warning was part of a “threat assessment” sent to MI5 by the Intelligence Bureau.

The report said that the assessment did not state that Britain was a specific target but it quoted police security sources as saying that it had raised fears in London that a British city might be attacked.

The hijack threat was revealed during the interrogation of Amjad Khwaja, a Harkat-ul-Jihad-al- Islami, who was arrested in India.

Britain has taken the threat assessment seriously as British home secretary Alan Johnson announced on Friday that the threat level to UK was being increased from substantial — which is a strong possibility of a terrorist attack to severe. Britain in 2003 had uncovered an Al Qaida plot in which a hijacked aircraft was to be flown into Heathrow airport.