Baltimore's harbour tunnels reopened
Authorities closed one of two highway tunnels carrying traffic under Baltimore’s harbour for nearly two hours today and partially shut the other because of a threat to detonate vehicles full of explosives inside the tubes.
The Baltimore Harbour Tunnel was closed and the Fort McHenry Tunnel was reduced to one lane of traffic in each direction, said Lt Col David Franklin of the Maryland Transportation Authority Police.
The closures began about 11:30am and officers began reopening the tubes about 1:15pm.
“The safe thing right now is to allow these tunnels to reopen,” said Chief Gary McLhinney of the transportation authority police.
He said the investigation was continuing, led by the FBI.
The tunnels carry Interstates 95 and 895 between Washington and the Philadelphia and New York city areas.
A federal law enforcement official said the threat was phoned in to authorities by a person claiming to have information from abroad.
Even though authorities questioned the credibility of the threat, they were looking for several men in the Baltimore area who the source said would drive “explosives-laden vehicles” into the tunnel, said another federal law enforcement official.
The decision to close the tunnel was made by state and local, not federal, authorities, that official said.
“We’re acting out of an abundance of caution,” said Jim Pettit, a spokesman for Gov Robert Ehrlich’s homeland security office.
“While the information was somewhat specific, to date the intelligence community has not found evidence that corroborates the information. This is an ongoing investigation,” FBI special agent Richard Kolko said.
McLhinney said vehicles were stopped but he would not say what police were looking for. He did say nothing had been found as of early afternoon.
