Explosives found in an illegal Muslim prayer hall near the Russian city of Samara was eliminated right inside the building. Bomb disposal team deemed it too dangerous to take the explosives out.
The video of the controlled explosion shows a considerable part of the building being destroyed in the blast.
A police dog helped to find a cache with more than a kilogram of explosives of unknown origin. A bomb-disposal expert said extracting the explosives would be definitely unsafe and bomb technicians rolled in a water cannon, a source within Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) told RT.
The federal highway M5 passing right in front of the house was blocked in both directions and people were evacuated from all nearby buildings.
The house was used for gatherings of Salafis, followers of an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, and it was not registered with the regional Muslim community as an official house of worship.
Inside the house, the FSB’s special forces detained 53 young men, at least one of whom was promoting the Islamic State terror group online.
According to an FSB source, the arrests made at the illegal prayer hall triggered a series of house raids, which helped uncover more explosives, handguns, grenades and ammo.
The same source said other known members of that particular Salafi community are currently fighting in Syria for the jihadists.