New York Police have seen a surge in reports of suspicious packages since US President Barack Obama announced the killing of Osama bin Laden.

On Monday, there were 62 reports across the city, including one in Times Square where a terrorist planted a faulty home-made car bomb a year ago. The previous Monday there were only 18. All were false alarms.

Police officials said yesterday that, since the September 11 attacks, it is not unusual for suspicious package reports to leap on news of terrorist plots in the city or overseas.

There were more than 10,000 such reports in 2010 alone.

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