Berlin, Dec 21 (AFP) Security was reinforced at several airports in western Germany, police said, amid some unconfirmed media reports of a terrorist threat.

Heavily armed police were patrolling late Thursday in several airports, including Stuttgart, Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden, Friedrichshafen, and Mannheim, according to a federal police spokesman.

The reinforced presence of police will remain in place until further notice, the spokesman added.

At the same time there has been no disruption to flights, a spokeswoman for the airports said.

Some German media have speculated as an explanation for the beefed-up security the spotting of four men, including a radical Islamist, allegedly suspected of planning an attack, which police did not confirm.

Several days ago, the men were filmed by a surveillance camera at Stuttgart airport, the daily Tagesspiegel reported. They remained near the metal detectors without taking a flight and without baggage.

And Suedwestrundfunk, a media group in western Germany, reported that Moroccan authorities had informed their German counterparts that they had intercepted conversations referring to a possible attack at an airport near the German-French border.

Small airports have also reinforced security controls "as a precaution", police at Reutlingen said. (AFP) ABH

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)