UK Airports put on red alert over the new year period.

Tuesday, December 31, 2002 (Paris):

British airports were put on a high security alert amid fears of a New Year terror attack after a baggage handler was arrested in Paris with a bomb.

The arrest of the man of Algerian origin at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, which operates frequent flights to Britain, prompted increased security concerns at airports across the country and the rest of Europe.

In Britain, airport chiefs, already fearing that Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida network could use holiday to hijack or bomb a plane, drafted in extra-armed police and stepped up security checks on passengers and staff.

The Department of Transport said security had already been heightened because of fears of a New Year atrocity.

“Security goes up or down according to the perceived threat,” a spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for the British Airports Authority, which runs the country’s busiest airports, said 300 extra security personnel had been drafted into Heathrow during the past few weeks.