The chiefs of power plants across Britain have been alerted after suspects tried to bluff their way past security guards protecting generating stations supplying the national network.
Special Branch detectives are studying closed-circuit television footage of the incidents in which men falsely claimed to have interviews with catering and cleaning companies inside one of Britain’s biggest power plants, supplying electricity to more than 3m homes in southern England.
If the incidents were terrorist-related, they mark a worrying new twist in the war on terror. Infrastructure sites are considered relatively “soft” targets, but a successful attack could have devastating consequences, including the blacking out of a city and the cutting off of water supplies.
The latest attempted break-in occurred last month at Didcot power station in Oxfordshire. Two men of Middle Eastern appearance in their late twenties or early thirties approached the main gate, claiming they had an interview with a cleaning company working on site. One gave the possibly false name of Sethi Haddad. When security guards tried to detain and question them they escaped down an access road in a white Ford Fiesta car.
A similar incident occurred earlier this year when two men tried to gain access to the power station on the false pretext of having an interview with the on-site catering company.
Advertisement
They returned the same evening expecting a different security shift and fled when they saw the same guards.
“Terrorists may be shifting their attentions to softer targets such as power or water supplies because we have made it much harder for them to attack airports and government buildings,” said a security source.
Didcot power station is inside a guarded perimeter fence on a former military site near Oxford. John Rainford, station manager for the coal and gas-fuelled generating plants, said: “There was something highly suspicious about both incidents and we called in the police immediately. The inquiry was taken over by Special Branch, we understand, because of possible terrorist implications.
“We have been operating on a higher level of security since September 11 precisely because of this sort of threat.”
An alert was sent to all power stations after Innogy, the company that runs Didcot, realised the seriousness of the threat. “Without wishing to be alarmist, I bring to your attention an incident at Didcot A,” the alert said, and described how the would-be intruders tried to gain entry.
Advertisement
Terrorists have plotted to attack infrastructure targets on previous occasions, realising the havoc and commercial damage they could wreak.
An IRA active service unit planned to blow up six power sub-stations around London in the 1990s, cutting the capital’s electricity supply. The attack would have disrupted water supplies, brought traffic chaos and blacked out homes and hospitals.
When IRA safe houses were raided by police and MI5 they found maps of the national power supply network. One terrorist — given the codename Paradise News by MI5 — was spotted by surveillance teams at Battersea public library in London where he was taking notes from the Electricity Supply Handbook.
After the attacks in 2001 on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, MI5 drew up a list of hundreds of possible terrorist targets.
The key buildings and installations include oil refineries, nuclear power stations, communications centres, airports and ports, including the Channel tunnel link.
Advertisement
Officers from MI5’s protective security department, which gained experience dealing with Irish terrorism, have visited sites and their security has been tightened. MI5 has paid particular attention to nuclear power plants, including Sizewell in Suffolk and Hinkley Point in Somerset.
There were indications that the fourth plane hijacked on September 11, which crashed in Pennsylvania, was heading for a nuclear power station on the American east coast.
The new security assessment has taken account of attacks from the air as well as threats from suicide bombers driving lorries or other vehicles, or even on foot, carrying explosives.
Perimeter security has been increased, including higher fencing, guard patrols and the use of closed-circuit television.
Although MI5 and the police regard the attempted break-ins at the power stations as suspicious, there is no intelligence of any specific terrorist threat against them.