ISIS-trained suspects planned terror attack on Moscow public transport – FSB

Several people were detained in a Moscow apartment on suspicion of planning a terror attack in Moscow, Russian news agencies reported, citing the FSB press service. Two of the detained confessed the attack was to be on public transport, the FSB said.

“It was determined that at a certain address in Moscow six to 11 people have occasionally been, some of them had undergone military training in camps of Islamic State terrorists on Syrian territory and arrived in Russia long before the start of Russian military operation in that country,” the press office of Russia’s Federal Security Service told Russian news agencies.

A self-made bomb with a capacity of 5 kilograms of TNT, an electric detonator, scales to weigh the bomb components, instruments and manuals on making explosives were found in a flat in an ordinary apartment building in western Moscow.

“An evacuation of the building’s residents was carried out, its gas supply system was switched off and the FSB’s gas-engineering lab arrived at the scene,” the Federal Security Service said. “The reconnaissance revealed [5 kilos] of explosives, produced [from] ammonium nitrate.”

The bomb was neutralized. 

“I’ve lived here for a year and haven’t seen anyone so far. Maybe they came by night. I’ve heard that it’s a one-room flat and seven people lived there,” local resident Natalia Ginza, who witnessed the scene of the arrest, told RT’s RUPTLY video agency.

READ MORE: Russian anti-terror forces thwart terror attack in Moscow 

During the questioning, two suspects told security officers that they planned an attack on Moscow public transport, and had received financial resources and elements of an improvised explosive device from their superiors in the militant group, the FSB press service said.

The FSB did not specify how many people had been detained. They added, however, that all the suspects are Russian citizens.

The suspects face up to 20 years behind bars under three criminal articles, including terrorism, illegally making explosives and illegal acquisition of firearms.