Libya 'astonishment' at UK call for Britons to evacuate Deputy Interior Minister Abdullah Massud expressed "astonishment" at the warnings on Thursday, and said his government would demand an explanation. "If Britain was afraid of threats to its citizens, it could have pulled them out quietly without causing all the commotion and excitement," Mr Massud was reported to have said on Friday. "The British Foreign Office statement sparked growing concerns by various diplomatic missions and foreign companies in Benghazi and led them to seriously consider leaving the city," Lana quoted him as saying. Ali al-Sheikh, a spokesman for the army chief of staff, told The Daily Telegraph it knew of no threat. Benghazi was the cradle of the uprising that ousted dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011 and also the city where a US ambassador was killed in an attack last September. The initial alert from London came hours after Prime Minister David Cameron warned that last week's deadly attack on a gas complex in Algeria was only one part of what would be a "long struggle against murderous terrorists" around the world. One intelligence source told The Daily Telegraph that MI6 had picked up a "credible threat" linked to last week's Algerian raid, in which al-Qeada militants stormed a BP gas complex and killed dozens of foreign workers. Sources in the Libyan city itself suggested the threat had been made against the British School of Benghazi, which announced it would close for a week at least, and other international "institutes." There have already been several reports of links between Libya and the Algerian hostage takers. The weapons used by the kidnappers were said to have come from the country, while some of the militants who took part are also reported to have been involved in last year's attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. In addition, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, the one-eyed al-Qaeda militia leader who masterminded the Algerian operation, is still on the loose and has close ties to Libya. Thursday's warning is a serious blow to Libya's post-revolution credibility and raises fears of a dangerous "security vacuum" in the country in the wake of the Nato-backed uprising which toppled Colonel Gaddafi. Michael Aron, Britain's new ambassador to Libya, told The Daily Telegraph that he now feared terrorists could use the country as a base in future to attack Britain. In the past week, North Africa has become the focus of the international war on terror, with the Algerian hostage crisis and France's military intervention against the al-Qaeda insurgency in Mali leading David Cameron to warn of a "generational struggle" in the region. The Foreign Office warned against all travel to Benghazi in the wake of last September's Islamist raid on the US consulate, which claimed the life of the American ambassador Christopher Stevens. Its advice now adds: "We are aware of a specific and imminent threat to Westerners in Benghazi, and urge any British nationals who remain there against our advice to leave immediately." It said the British Embassy in Tripoli had been in contact with nationals, where they had contact details. The International News Safety Institute issued a separate warning, saying it had been advised of a threat to Libya's oil fields. The intelligence source said it was not clear whether the latest threat had been pre-planned or was in retribution for the deaths of lieutenants such as Mohamed Lamine Boucheneb during the Algerian siege. One source said it was possible that Libyan terrorists were planning another Algerian-style hostage taking.