Fake bomb smuggled through tunnel

Eurotunnel said if the bomb was real it would have been detected

Two newspapers in Kent are claiming security in the county is lax after they took a fake bomb into the Channel Tunnel and on a cross Channel ferry.

Reporters from the Dover Express and Folkestone Herald used puff pastry and wires in a flask to make the fake bomb.

The papers' editor Simon Finlay said they wanted to establish the levels of security, which he called lamentable.

Eurotunnel said if they had been carrying real explosives its security measures would have picked it up.

I understand that you cannot possibly secure the world but you can make it safer Simon Finlay, Dover Express and Folkestone Express editor

Seven ounces of pastry, masking tape and a watch concealed in a flask were used to create the fake device.

The reporters claimed they also took the "bomb" into Folkestone Magistrates Court and set the metal detector off but were not challenged by security.

They also claimed to have photographed the flask underneath a Port of Dover police car.

Mr Finlay said: "What we were trying was to establish that it was too easy to do - it was lamentable the levels of security."

'Great deal of cost'

In the Channel Tunnel, Mr Finlay said every third car was stopped and searched but he said the checks were "cursory".

He said: "We spoke to a security expert from Northern Ireland who has knowledge of 30 years of terrorism in that country.

"He said if we had six or seven ounces of Semtex, such as the amount of pastry in our fake device, and it went off in the Channel Tunnel 10 miles in it would be like an earthquake - it would be a massacre.

"South-east Kent is a very sensitive area for terrorist targets and we would hope through doing this exercise that people re-examine just how vigilant they are.

"I understand that you cannot possibly secure the world but you can make it safer."

A Eurotunnel spokeswoman said: "If they had been carrying real explosives our security measures would have picked it up prior to them getting anywhere near the tunnel."

Dover Harbour Board and the Port of Dover Police said they never commented on security issues.

Chief executive of Dover District Chamber of Commerce Ray Haines condemned the move because of the effect it could have had if the fake device had been found in terms of disruption and cost.