By GEOFF CUMMING and AGENCIES
A fresh warning that terrorists may attack targets in the United States or its interests abroad over the next week put US security forces on high alert yesterday.
US Attorney-General John Ashcroft issued the warning, the first since an FBI advisory on October 11, one month after strikes on the World Trade Center.
"The Administration has concluded, based on information developed, that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against United States interests over the next week," he said.
"The Administration views this information as credible, but unfortunately it does not contain specific information as to the type of attack or specific targets."
Asked if the warning was tied to the anthrax-laced letters sent to news media and political figures, FBI director Robert Mueller said: "I have no reason to believe that it is related."
Another US official said the warning was probably linked to Osama bin Laden, the chief suspect behind the September 11 suicide attacks.
After the alert, an American Airlines plane made an unscheduled landing at Washington's Dulles International Airport and passengers were evacuated after reports that a passenger had found a threatening note.
Authorities searched the plane and found nothing.
But fears that the anthrax mail threat may not be contained were confirmed when a 61-year-old woman employed at a New York hospital was found to have respiratory anthrax.
The woman worked in the stockroom at Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital and was yesterday in a critical condition on a respirator.
She did not normally handle mail but worked close to the hospital mailroom.
Staff at the hospital, which employs about 300 people, were to be tested and given antibiotics.
In Washington, fresh anthrax traces were found in mailrooms in the Supreme Court, the Department of Agriculture and the Cohen Building, headquarters of the Government-financed Voice of America radio and the Department of Health and Human Services, a key agency in the fight against an outbreak of bioterrorism.
In New York, postal workers filed a lawsuit, seeking closure of the central city facility that processes hundreds of thousands of letters daily, until it is cleaned of possible contamination.
The Morgan General Mail facility processed the anthrax-laced letters sent to NBC News, ABC News and the New York Post.
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Timeline: Major events since the Sept 11 attacks
US put on full alert as intelligence points to fresh attacks
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