Italian police released video on Wednesday (August 7) showing their bomb squad carrying out extraordinary security controls around the American embassy in Rome.

Police bomb experts checked manholes around the embassy in the central Via Veneto and inspected the embassy's boundaries with sniffer dogs. Nothing unusual was found, the police said.

The U.S. consulate in central Milan had been evacuated on Tuesday (August 6) after a bomb alert, but police who searched the premises said it was a false alarm.

The U.S. State Department closed 21 embassies and consulates and issued a worldwide travel alert warning Americans after they gained intelligence that al Qaeda may be planning attacks in August, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa.

Presented by Adam Justice