TOKYO, Sept 5: Eleven university hospitals in Tokyo are on alert after receiving bomb threats in the run-up to Japan’s September 11 election, local media reported on Monday. The medical institutions, including the University of Tokyo Hospital, received letters saying that they would be ‘bombed within 45 days’, the Kyodo news agency reported, citing police sources.

The press division of the Metropolitan Police Department could not confirm the report.

The letters, sent by mail, did not contain any specific demands, Kyodo News said.

Police and the hospitals have stepped up security checks but have not discovered any explosive devices, it added.

Across the nation, police have increased their security presence ahead of the snap general election. Japan is reportedly among the targets of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

Madrid was hit by train bombings three days before Spain’s general election in March last year. Spain’s then government, like the current government of Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, was a staunch backer of the US-led war in Iraq.—AFP