Kenya to put on extra flights
Kenya Airways plans to lay on extra planes today to take home Britons stranded in Kenya following a major terrorism alert.
Around 1,200 UK holidaymakers remain in the east African country after services to and from the country were grounded when it emerged that a key member of Al-Qaeda, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, was in Kenya and plotting to attack a British jet.
The Department of Transport said the threat was 'imminent'.
The last flight from Nairobi to London left at 8.25pm yesterday and arrived back at 5am today with 228 passengers on board.
British Airways cancelled its daily 9.50pm service from Heathrow. Travellers due to fly to Kenya were being told to delay their journey, try another destination or claim a refund.
BA is transferring hundreds of passengers in the country to Tanzania to catch flights home.
Kenya Airways operates daily services between London and Nairobi. Its flight from Heathrow to Kenya leaving at 11.30pm today is full and the airline also has a flight leaving Nairobi at 9.30pm UK time tonight, which is due at Heathrow at 6.35am tomorrow.
Kenya Airways spokeswoman Sally Peters said: "We are now working with the British High Commission in Nairobi to assist any Britons who want to get home.
"We are looking at the possibility of putting on extra planes and if we need to do so, we will."
The news could have a devastating effect on Kenya's tourist industry, which attracts 80,000 Britons a year to its safari and beach holidays.
Terrorist Mohammed, a comrade of Osama Bin Laden, is said to have masterminded the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania which killed 224.
He was also involved in last November's bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa when 16 died. Minutes before the attack two missiles were fired at a Boeing 757.
Earlier this week, 34 people were killed, including two Britons, when Al-Qaeda bombed western compounds in Saudi Arabia.
Kenya called Britain's move an 'over-reaction' and claimed there had been no specific threat.
