FRANCE HAS warned that a terrorist attack in Britain is “highly likely” and urged its citizens to be “extremely vigilant” on public transport and near tourist sites.
Just hours before suspected al-Qaeda militants attacked two western targets in Yemen, firing a rocket at a British diplomat’s car and shooting dead a Frenchman, the government in Paris became the latest to warn of an increased terrorist threat in Europe.
Its advice followed a US alert on Sunday warning American citizens to be cautious if travelling in Europe, without specifying individual countries.
The same day, Britain raised the threat level to “high” from “general” for citizens travelling to Germany and France, while Japan and Sweden have also issued alerts.
“The British authorities consider that the terrorist threat level is very high in the United Kingdom and that the risk of an attack is highly likely,” the French foreign ministry warned on its website. “It is recommended that extreme vigilance be shown on public transport and at the most visited tourist sites.”
In Berlin, however, interior minister Thomas de Maizière said he saw no indications of any imminent attack on Germany, even though the country remained in general a target. He said talking about possible attacks played into the hands of terrorists by fuelling public fears. “Public discussion is something terrorists use because they want to spread fear. We’re working but not talking a lot,” Mr de Maizière told German radio.
He said he could not confirm accounts from Pakistani intelligence officials that eight militants of German nationality had been killed by a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Monday.
The flurry of terror warnings in recent days was reportedly due to intelligence about a possible al-Qaeda-related plot to launch assaults on European cities, modelled on the 2008 Mumbai attacks by Pakistan-based gunmen that killed about 170 people.
“No one should doubt that Germany is a target for terrorists but on the other hand there are no concrete, immediate attack plans that we are aware of,” Mr de Maizière said, adding that the danger to Germany was “hypothetical”.
On Tuesday, French police arrested 12 people and seized guns in a series of anti-terrorism raids in the south of the country, though it was not claimed that these were related to the threats picked up by intelligence services recently.
France is on high alert after seven hostages, including five French citizens, were kidnapped by a group affiliated to al-Qaeda in north Africa last month, and president Nicolas Sarkozy has sent extra soldiers to the Sahel to support regional governments in pursuing Islamist militants.
Separately, the foreign ministry in Paris confirmed a Frenchman was killed in a shooting incident inside an Austrian oil and gas group compound in Yemeni capital Sanaa. In the same city, a missile was fired at a British embassy vehicle carrying the deputy head of its mission in Yemen.
Speaking in Brussels, EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerchove said the terror threat against Europe was “real” and suggested al-Qaeda was seeking to mount something “symbolic” was to repair its prestige amid heavy pressure from drone strikes in Pakistan.