Divers check out gas tankers

Special forces divers have been searching for terrorist mines attached to gas tankers which come into UK ports, it has emerged.

It is understood that frogmen from the Special Boat Service (SBS) and specialists from the Royal Navy have been carrying out covert searches of the vessels.

It is feared that Islamist terrorists have attached explosive devices to ships while they are in the Middle East, in order to detonate them when they reach the UK.

The tankers unload at terminals in the Isle of Grain in Kent and at Milford Haven in Wales, before the gas is fed to power stations.

The operation is believed to have started two years ago.