Taiwanese authorities tightened security at the island's airports as they investigated a threat of terrorist attacks in China, officials said Monday.
Officials of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, or CAA, stressed that they couldn't authenticate the threat, which they learned of Tuesday, and said it was most likely unrelated to the disappearance Saturday of a Malaysia Airlines flight to Beijing, the official Central News Agency reported.
Lee Wan-lee, deputy director-general of the CAA, said China Airlines received a phone call Tuesday warning of a bomb attack on the Beijing airport and subway systems.
China Airlines said the caller, who claimed to work for a French anti-terrorist organization, spoke first in French but switched to Mandarin because the operator couldn't understand what was being said, the Central News Agency reported.
Taiwan's National Security Bureau passed the information on to Chinese authorities and Taiwanese law enforcement and aviation agencies, it reported. Airport security in Taiwan was heightened, and "extra measures" were taken to ensure the safety of flights to Beijing, it said.
The call came just three days after knife-wielding attackers killed 29 people and injured more than 140 others March 1 at a train station in Kunming, China.
— M. Alex Johnson