Metro

Chatter dies down but NYC tightens up

Osama bin Laden is dead — and his terrorist buddies are dead quiet.

Authorities yesterday said they had detected no increase in possible terror activity or discussion about launching attacks to retaliate for the killing of bin Laden — even as security measures were ramped up around the city, state and nation.

“I spoke this morning to people in the FBI and Homeland Security and the head of the counter-terrorism office for New York City, and they have not detected . . . an uptick of threats or events against our city or our country,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).

“This didn’t happen by accident,” Schumer said. “We’re much better at fighting terrorism. We know who the terrorists are when they’re part of a group, and we can hear what they’re saying, so it’s not an accident, praise God, that there haven’t been any acts of terrorism against the United States since 9/11.”

But Schumer noted that any terror threat to the Big Apple — and to the rest of the United States — is “more likely to come from an individual, like the Times Square bomber, who act on their own and not in an organized group.”

“Might they in the next few weeks decide to take action into their own hands? They may,” Schumer said. “We have to monitor the lone wolves.”

To prepare for that possibility, city, state and federal authorities were on higher alert yesterday, deploying extra manpower to transportation hubs and other possible terror targets.

“There are no specific threats against New York City as of this moment, but we are certainly not taking any chances,” Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

“Our assumption is that bin Laden’s disciples would like nothing better than to avenge his death by another attack in New York. That is our operating premise.”

Kelly ordered that officers working the midnight-to-8-a.m. shift continue working through the morning rush hour, along with ordering extra bag searches in subway stations, helicopters over sensitive locations, and closer attention to waterborne traffic.

Additional reporting by Larry Celona, Amber Sutherland and Jamie Schram

sgoldenberg@nypost.com