11:44pm UK, Friday December 21, 2001

A cargo ship seized by anti-terrorist officers and the Royal Navy is under armed guard just off the Isle of Wight.

SL Cargo ship Nisha boarded Channel

Dramatic interception at sea

The ship, heading for a sugar refinery in east London, was intercepted after a tip-off that it contained "terrorist material" such as explosives and anthrax.

London on alert

Nothing has been found so far but a thorough search of the ship is expected to be completed over the weekend.

The crew, thought to be mainly Indian and Filipino, is "co-operating fully", Scotland Yard said.

London has been on heightened alert since the US terror attacks on September 11.

Potential threat

Prime Minister Tony Blair said the seizure demonstrated the "top-level vigilance" of the security services.

During a conference with the Russian president, Mr Blair said: "We remain on top-level vigilance throughout these coming weeks. We will not hesitate to take any action that we think necessary in order to investigate any potential threat."

Shown live on TV, the ship was trailed by a frigate before being intercepted in international waters off the Sussex coast, about 30 miles south of Beachy Head.

Dijbouti

Officers from the Metropolitan Police anti-terrorist branch, Customs and Royal Marine boarded from inflatable boats. The ship was taken to Sandown Bay, off the Isle of Wight.

The MV Nisha, registered in St Vincent in the Caribbean, is operated by the Great Eastern Shipping Company, based in Bombay. It had sailed from Mauritius and recently stopped in Djibouti, next to Somalia, which has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network.

It was carrying a cargo of 26,000 tonnes of sugar to the Tate & Lyle refinery on the Thames at Silvertown.

Weak link

The chairman of the British arm of the Great Eastern Shipping Company, Sudhir Mulji, said it was a "pretty standard voyage".

But he admitted maritime security was a problem because ships were unable to run airline-style security checks.

Terrorism expert Dr Magnus Ranstorp said terrorists would pinpoint ports as the weak link in the UK after airport vigilance was massively tightened.