MOSCOW: The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday it had uncovered a cell of the militant Islamic State (IS) group that was planning imminent terror attacks in the country’s second-largest city Saint Petersburg.

“The FSB identified and stopped the activities of a clandestine cell of IS supporters who planned to commit attacks on Dec 16,” the security service said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

According to the FSB, the group planned a suicide attack and “the killing of citizens” in crowded areas of the northern city.

Seven members of the cell were arrested during raids that took place on Wednesday and Thursday.

The police confiscated a “large number of explosives used to make homemade bombs, automatic rifles, munitions and extremist literature,” the statement said.

On Tuesday, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said Russia was on alert for the possible return of militants from Syria ahead of the World Cup and presidential election in 2018.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017