OSLO: Norway closed part of the airspace over its second city Bergen and tightened border checks on Saturday, police said, two days after the country upped security following a terror alert.

Norway has been on high alert since Thursday, when its intelligence service (PST) said it had “recently received information that a group of extremists from Syria may be planning a terrorist attack” in the country.

“Police have requested Avinor (Norway’s state-owned airport operator) to ban flights over central Bergen,” said Gustav Landro, chief of staff at the Hordaland county police department. “The reason is the increased threat situation we have had since Thursday,” he added.

Police said the airspace ban applied only to smaller private and recreational flights over the centre of the city in western Norway.

Bergen’s airport was not disrupted and was operating normally, police said.

On Saturday, authorities said they would check the ID of all travellers entering Norway until further notice.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2014