Andrew Moores, Dianne Bourne and Michelle Gillies, who were investigating the suspected bomb alert at Manchester Airport, were followed by a fleet of unmarked police cars near Wood Lane, Mobberley - after being threatened with arrest under the Terrorism Act.

Police had blocked off several roads in Mobberley close to the end of the second runway where a jet at the centre of a bomb scare had been left.

Police said the spot - close to the perimeter fence in Wood Lane - was the remotest part of the airport.

"It was the largest exclusion zone we could find and the furthest away from any terminal or inhabitable buildings," said a spokesman.

Airport officials had been alerted early Saturday after Islamic extremists claimed a bomb on board the Pakistani International Boeing 747 flight from Lahore to New York would explode over the Atlantic.

More than 460 passengers and 17 crew were evacuated after the jet landed at Manchester.

By 6pm - the jet's expected arrival time - no bomb had been found.

But reporters and TV crews had then descended on Mobberley.

Many villagers, though, were unaware of the drama on their doorstep.

As darkness fell over the village, the tail of the massive plane was silhouetted against the skyline.

Linda Stockton, landlady at the Church Inn, found out about the scare from her customers.

"They had just come from the airport and said there was something going on," she said.

The jet took off from Manchester early Sunday.