A ferry from France to Algeria with 1,400 passengers returned to Marseille on Saturday after an anonymous warning that a bomb had been planted in a vehicle on board, officials said.
Emergency response crews and bomb disposal experts rushed to the Marseille port and were in place when the ferry -- the Tariq, operated by the Algerian company Algerie Ferries -- pulled alongside.
But after an extensive search police said no bomb had been found and the alert was called off.
"The alert is over. The bomb disposal service did not find any object, nothing suspicious," regional security chief Jean-Luc Marx said.
Passengers who were evacuated from the ferry said they were initially told there was a fire.
"They told us that they had a fire due to a storm. It's only now that we realise that there's a bomb scare," said Yassine, 40, a passenger.
Friends and family of those on board also crowded the dockside but were being kept well back from the ferry while the search was underway.
"We're worried. I want to see, to know what's happening," said Yassine's cousin, Kamel, who was at the pier.
The alert was given in an anonymous telephone call to the Algerian consul in Lyon, southeast France, police said. The consulate however denied receiving any such threat.
The owner of the suspect vehicle had been found on board the ferry and was being questioned, a police source said. The vessel was carrying 466 vehicles, all of which had been evacuated along with the passengers.
The incident comes after at least 34 people were killed in twin car bomb attacks in Algiers on Tuesday on UN and government buildings claimed by Al-Qaeda's local branch.
The Algiers attacks were the bloodiest on UN facilities since the August 19, 2003 truck bomb blast at the UN office in Baghdad, which killed 22 people including special envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.
Around 100 people have been killed in a string of bombings in Algeria this year including one on April 11 against government headquarters and another on September 6 aimed at the motorcade of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
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