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England's badminton chief denied on Monday that pulling the team out of the world championships in India had been an overreaction, saying he had not been impressed by security levels.

The team flew back to England on Sunday because of what Badminton England said was a "specific terrorist threat" against the championships in the southern city of Hyderabad.

An Indian badminton federation official blamed the media for causing panic, while chief executive of Badminton Scotland Anne Smillie told local media that England had "perhaps overreacted" and that her team were confident security was at its best.

"I don't think we have overreacted. We were very clear with our expectations of security before the championships," Badminton England chief executive Adrian Christy told the BBC.

"We were not particularly impressed with the level of security we were faced with -- both on our arrival and subsequent days as we began our preparation through practice in the arena."

Badminton England said on Sunday its decision had followed media reports of a threat of an attack by Lashkar-e-Taiba, the Pakistan-based militant group blamed for November's attack on Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

England were the only team to withdraw from the event which started on Monday.

(Source: Reuters)