World Cup security lapses exposed ahead of England's game against USA

The World Cup stadium which will host England's opening match against the USA went into lockdown today after serious security lapses were exposed.

Football bosses ordered the tightening after an Evening Standard reporter was able to enter the Royal Bafokeng ground unchallenged days before Fabio Capello's men are due to take to the field there.

It comes despite fears that the match could be targeted by terrorists hoping to inflict mass casualties on 44,000 football fans - many of them England supporters - in front of a global television audience.

An Algerian-based terror group linked to al Qaeda posted online threats to bring "deaths" in an explosion on the day of the game, fuelling fears that violent jihadists are viewing the match as a perfect opportunity to target Britain and America.

But our reporter was able to walk past police and security into the heart of the stadium in Phokeng, near Rustenburg, without being searched or showing any identification.

After walking up the steel walkway and a flight of concrete steps, he entered the stadium building itself and was ignored by workers and security staff.

The reporter moved freely around the stadium and sat in seats yards from the pitch where Wayne Rooney and his team-mates will play on Saturday.

Alarmingly, he was also able to access VIP lounges and terraces where dignitaries and leading figures from the world of football will sit.

Not once was he stopped by staff or guards who seemed oblivious to his movement between key areas of the stadium.

Had he been a terrorist intent on causing carnage there would have been many opportunities to plant devices that could have been concealed on his body.

Staff continued to clean, patrol and prepare the stadium for the match as he walked straight past them, even unlocking doors himself to access outdoor areas. The reporter, who has no accreditation for the tournament, was then able to leave the ground through an open side gate without being stopped or undergoing any checks. A Fifa source said security at the stadium would be tightened today when a "lockdown" period began.

Security has been stepped up around England's 23-man squad following a shooting involving a drunken police officer near the Royal Bafokeng campus.

Armed guards patrol around the electrified perimeter fence of the team's multi-million-pound training base. The stadium itself is supposedly under very tight security with miles of roads leading to it closed and steel fencing erected to ensure police can keep a watchful eye on traffic as it flows through two lanes instead of four.

Vans of police and sniffer dogs also patrol the area and every vehicle within a five-mile radius will come under scrutiny in the hours leading up to Saturday night's kick off.

But the fact that security at the stadium was breached so easily so soon before the game will raise fresh questions about how prepared South Africa is for policing such a high-profile event. And it will come as a major embarrassment to FIFA and the local organising committee who launched an urgent review of security after the online terror threat emerged in April.

The North African terrorist group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed in an online jihadist magazine that it planned to use an "undetectable" explosive to evade security checkpoints and cause "hundreds of deaths".

Casey Christie from Nice & Secure, a UK-based security firm advising European and US security companies in South Africa during the tournament, said: "The England team will be the number two target for international terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda, second only to the USA. Additionally England is not a popular country in Africa. Therefore it is absolutely critical that they are exhaustively safe-guarded."

No one from the organising committee was available for comment.

The security lapses comes amid fears over World Cup security after three journalists were robbed in their South African hotel.

Portuguese photographer Antonio Simoes was held down in his bed at gunpoint for 30 minutes while two thieves stole £25,000 of camera equipment at the Nutbush Boma Lodge in Magaliesburg, 75 miles from Johannesburg.

Two other journalists sharing his three-bedroomed lodge then discovered they had been robbed as they slept.