Ferry ports on heightened terror alert
The BBC claims the alert was issued last week after French and Dutch security services warned that terrorists would attempt to board a North Sea ferry in a truck loaded with explosives.
The intelligence is believed to have originated from the FBI.
A secret bulletin issued to ports by Britain's transport security service Transec last Friday is said to have played down the warning.
But at the same time, all ports with roll-on roll-off facilities were ordered on to a "heightened emergency" level of alert - the highest level provided for in the system - the BBC said.
The programme quoted a spokesman for Dover, Britain's busiest ferry port, as saying that port authorities had stepped up the searching of lorries.
Every building in the port was searched on Friday after a warning from a Government agency, but nothing was found.
