NEW YORK, July 8: Law enforcement officials overseas have arrested one man and have taken two others into custody on suspicion of planning suicide bombings in train tunnels beneath the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, authorities said at a press conference on Friday.

Mark J. Mershon, an FBI official who is in charge of the agency’s New York office,. said the agency and New York City police have been monitoring the activities of the group for about a year.

The planning or the plotting for this attack had matured to the point where it appeared the individuals were about to move forward,” Mr Mershon said at the press briefing .

He said five other men were being sought in connection with the plan, which law enforcement authorities said presented a genuine threat even though it was in its earliest stages and no attack was imminent.

“They were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks, and at that point I think it’s entirely appropriate to take it down.”

The New York Times said on Saturday law enforcement authorities identified the main subject of the investigation as Assem Hammoud, 31, a Lebanese man who was arrested on April 27 in Beirut.