MUMBAI, May 23: Indian police stepped up security at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai on Wednesday after it was threatened with imminent terrorist attack, officials said.

A letter arrived at the complex on Tuesday threatening the building would be destroyed by the outlawed militant group Lashkar-i-Taiba on Thursday, WTC director Y. R. Warerkar told AFP.

“We have discussed the issue with the police, who have advised us to keep our offices open,” Warerkar said.

The city's anti-terrorist and bomb squads could be seen patrolling the complex, which houses several Indian corporates, banks and a shopping arcade.

Security is already high in Mumbai, which was hit in July 2006 by train blasts that killed some 185 people and left hundreds more injured. Indian police have blamed Lashkar-i-Taiba and Pakistan's intelligence agency.

An anti-terror court in the city is also in the process of sentencing 100 people convicted for their roles in 1993 bombings allegedly organised by Mumbai's Muslim-dominated underworld that left 257 people dead.—AFP