SCOTS JET ANTHRAX SCARE; Stricken air girl rushed to isolation unit.

Byline: SALLY McLEAN 

A SCOTS airport was at the centre of a deadly anthrax alert last night - just hours after Tony Blair's plane flew in.

Police and fire crews wearing chemical warfare suits sealed off part of Edinburgh Airport after a stewardess collapsed and was found to have white powder on her clothes.

Hours earlier, the Prime Minister had landed at the airport, on the first leg of his weekend visit to Scotland.

The 34-year-old British Airways worker was treated at a temporary isolation unit in the airport before being rushed to the city's Royal Infirmary.

Last night, an airport insider said: "Our worst fear is an anthrax attack and, of course, that is the first conclusion everyone jumped to. It is what everyone has dreaded."

Moments after the woman collapsed, police and fire crews isolated Block 12, where she had been working, and launched a full-scale chemical and biological alert.

Last night, the stewardess underwent treatment at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. She was later released after being checked over.

The white powder has yet to be identified by experts.

The incident happened at 1.40pm yesterday, two hours after Tony Blair flew into the airport to visit the new ERI, where anti- war demonstrators confronted him.

A spokesman for BA last night confirmed: "A member of our staff was involved in an incident at the airport."

A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman last night confirmed: "We were called to the airport as a precaution.

"Initial analysis of the powder has found nothing untoward so far."

Earlier in the day, an easyJet flight was found to have white powder on its undercarriage but the substance was later identified as traces of de- icer.

That incident was one of several scares as Britain remained in the grip of a major terror alert.

Six more terrorist suspects were arrested near airports yesterday.

Four men were seized by armed police near Heathrow yesterday morning and two men were arrested near Leeds- Bradford airport.

The four Heathrow suspects were the latest to be held as part of a major anti-terror operation involving hundreds of troops and more than 1000 police officers.

In Leeds, two men, aged 25 and 26, were arrested after being caught acting suspiciously near the airport.

Police were examining a Vauxhall car found near the scene.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "Two men were arrested by officers having been found acting suspiciously close to the airport's perimeter fence."

A suspect package led to Heathrow's Terminal Two being evacuated but it later turned out to be a false alarm.

At Stansted, the access road to the terminal was closed for five hours because of security fears surrounding the departure of flights by Israeli airline El Al to Tel Aviv.

Police were still quizzing the man caught carrying a live hand grenade in his luggage at Gatwick on Thursday.

The man, who was bearing a Venezuelan passport, got off a British Airways flight from Bogota in Colombia.

In a separate operation, Thames Valley Police arrested four people near Heathrow.

They were arrested in Langley, Berkshire.

Two other suspects, who had been arrested under anti-terror laws on Thursday, were released without charge yesterday.

Scotland Yard Deputy Assistant Commissioner Andy Trotter said: "We're taking every measure necessary to keep London safe."

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