Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Friday that it thwarted an attempted terrorist attack at a bus station in the southern Stavropol region.
The law enforcement agency said it detained a man who had purchased supplies to make an improvised explosive device, which he allegedly stored in a garage in the city of Yessentuki. Authorities did not reveal the man’s identity, saying only that he was from an unspecified country in Central Asia.
According to the FSB, the man had “conducted a reconnaissance” of a bus station in Yessentuki and “learned when crowds of people gather” there.
FSB video published by state news agencies showed the man, whose face was blurred, purchasing items in a market and taking photographs of a bus schedule before being tackled and handcuffed by agents.
In an interrogation video, the man said he had joined the Islamic State and planned to carry out a terrorist act “on its orders.”
The FSB said law enforcement authorities had launched a terrorist investigation.
Russia has been on high alert for terrorist threats since the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.
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