MOSCOW, Aug 24: Three foreign nationals were detained at an air show outside Moscow in an area used by military aviation enterprises, Russian news agencies reported on Friday, quoting police sources.

The Interfax news agency quoted police Colonel Anatoly Dunayev as saying the three were Britons who had been handed over to the FSB internal security service, “who are investigating.” However Britain’s Foreign Office denied they were British nationals and said it believed the detainees had already been released.

“Apparently they’re not British — they’re English-speaking tourists and they were detained.... They have been released,” a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in London.

Another Russian news agency, RIA Novosti, quoted from a police statement saying the three had been detained on Wednesday and then ejected from the MAKS-2007 air show for penetrating a restricted area.

Neither the interior ministry or the FSB press offices were ready to comment on the reports when contacted by reporters.

They come amid heightened tensions between Moscow and London following the poisoning death last November of ex-Russian agent Alexander Litvinenko.

The MAKS-2007 air show outside Moscow is a showcase for Russia’s sensitive military and civil aviation industry.—AFP