China cracks terror cell planning Games attack: state media

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

SHANGHAI (AFP) — Police in Shanghai have cracked a terrorist cell planning to attack an Olympic football venue in the Chinese financial hub, state media reported Thursday.

The report came as China ramps up security ahead of the Summer Games, set to begin on August 8 in the capital Beijing and several other cities including Shanghai, amid what it described as an unprecedented terror threat.

"We have obtained information that international terrorist organisations would likely launch an attack against an Olympic venue in the city during the Games," Xinhua news agency quoted the head of Shanghai's Olympic security office, Cheng Jiulong, as saying.

"We have staged raids and cracked a group of terrorists," he said.

Police officials were not immediately...