Nepal has increased security at its only major airport after receiving a threat that supporters of Osama bin Laden would hijack a plane and crash it into a target in neighbouring India.
Security has been greatly tightened after the threat, Mr Kedar Koirala, a senior security official at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, said.
The Kathmandu Postquoted an anonymous letter received by the authorities as saying bin Laden's men were already in the Nepalese capital and planned to hijack an aircraft and crash it into one of three targets in India: the US embassy in New Delhi, the office of the Indian prime minister, or his home.
It said the handwritten letter was mailed from the southern Indian city of Madras.
Nepal and India are among countries that gave early support to the US-led strikes on Afghanistan where Saudi-born bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11th suicide hijack attacks on the United States, is believed to be hiding.