Security Tightened on Tokyo Subway

The Associated Press
Friday, September 28, 2007; 5:50 AM

 

TOKYO -- Police tightened security on Tokyo's subways this week after receiving a warning of an alleged terrorist attack, media and officials said Friday.

Investigators were dispatched to several locations in Tokyo after a phone call Wednesday, broadcaster TBS reported Friday. TBS did not say who received the phone call.

The caller told authorities that a terrorist group including Pakistanis was hiding in central Tokyo and planned to conduct suicide attacks on the subways by Friday morning, TBS said.

The caller demanded about $2 million in return for the information, TBS said.

Police were dispatched Thursday to one location in downtown Tokyo, but there were no bombs or incidents, a police official said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol. He refused to give other details.

Police asked Tokyo Metro, the city's main subway system, to increase vigilance Thursday without providing any explanation, subway spokesman Hidekazu Hazeyama said.

Tokyo Metro found no suspicious objects or individuals and lowered its alert level to normal Friday afternoon, he said.

The Sankei newspaper reported Friday that a man called police and a Japanese embassy Wednesday and said a terrorist group had brought bombs into Tokyo with plans to attack public transportation. The newspaper did not say in which country the embassy was located.

The man, who spoke English with an accent and was possibly a foreigner, demanded a reward for the information, the newspaper said.

U.S. authorities told their Japanese counterparts of a similar demand for rewards several days earlier by possibly the same man in exchange for information about alleged planned terrorist attacks in the U.S., it said.