US warns of attack rumours in Tanzania

In a rare security alert, the US embassy in Tanzania has told its citizens there to take precautions after saying there were "rumours of impending attacks" in a tourist area of the main city Dar es Salaam.

However the embassy also says it "has no substantiating evidence of the threat or information on the timing":

Responding to the warning, police chief Simon Sirro said he was aware of the rumours and the police are following them up.

"It's news like any other news, it might be true or false, but we don't ignore it," he told BBC Swahili.

He added that the intelligence service had the information since Tuesday.

In 1998, the US embassy in Dar es Salaam was targeted in an al-Qaeda bombing in which 11 people died. But there have been no attacks on foreigners in Tanzania since then.