NEW YORK, March 28: Amid war and terrorism fears, Police in New York closed down Williamsburg bridge connecting Manhattan to the borough of Brooklyn for hours and arrested three men caught climbing the bridge.

Traffic in the city’s down town district snarled as the police struggled to preclude possibility of terrorist attack to blow up the bridge and police helicopters flew around the bridge scanning it.

A police spokesman said that the bridge was searched by police and other emergency units who have been on high security alert since the US-led war on Iraq started last Thursday and the Sept 11 attacks.

“We do not believe it is terrorist related,” an official with the New York City Police Department. “There is no suspicious package.”

Police sources said they believed the incident may have been a prank by the three men.