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Incidents prompt terrorist fear

From the archive, first published Monday 4th Aug 2003.

MI5 is reported to be investigating two attempted break-ins at Didcot Power Station amid fears that Al-Qaeda terrorists are planning an attack in Britain.

Managers at power stations across the country have been alerted after suspects tried to bluff their way past security guards at Didcot, according to a report in the Sunday Times.

But while the reported attempts to breach security at Didcot's coal-fired and gas-powered plant came as no surprise to leading town and district councillor Mike McNulty, who has been employed at the power station for 30 years, he was said he was inclined to believe theft of equipment was more likely to be the motive.

Special Branch detectives are said to have studied closed-circuit television footage of the incidents in which men falsely claimed to have interviews with catering and cleaning companies at the two Didcot power plants.

If the incidents were terrorist-related, they mark a worrying new twist in the war on terror, said the paper.

No-one was available for comment at the power station.

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