Report: Channel Tunnel A Terror Target

There are reports of an audacious plan by Islamic terrorists to cause European carnage over the holiday period, targeting the Channel Tunnel.

An attack on the tunnel, linking Britain and France, could come within the next week, according to a report in London's Observer newspaper.

CBS News correspondent Larry Miller says that French intelligence and the CIA were cited as sources, which reportedly said the possibility of such an attack this holiday season is "sky high."

The Observer said the French foreign intelligence service, DGSE, warned the French government of the threat in a Dec. 19 report after a tip-off from the CIA. The newspaper cited French sources as saying the plot was being directed from Pakistan and involved Western European militants, possibly Britons of Pakistani descent.

One terrorism expert said a channel tunnel attack would be as spectacular as 9/11. Thousands of passengers travel through the Channel Tunnel each day.

Since last week, a number of security checks have been made on the 31-mile underwater train tunnel.

The newspaper also claimed that al Qaeda-linked militants were plotting a wave of attacks on an unidentified European country, with the plot planned and run from Syria and Iraq. It said the threat was greatest between September 2006 and April 2007.

British officials have warned there is a high threat of an attempted terrorist attack over the Christmas and New Year period, although they say they have no specific intelligence of any plots.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said Friday that "the threat of another terrorist attempt is ever present."

"Christmas is a period when that might happen," he said, but added, "We have no specific intelligence to do (with) that."