Cairo: Egyptian authorities arrested four people, including a Tunisian man, suspected of plotting to carry out terror attacks against vital installations in the country including the Cairo subway system, local media reported on Friday.
The four were arrested on Thursday, a day after police killed a Libyan national in a three-hour shootout in the Cairo north eastern area of Nasr city, added the state-run newspaper Al Ahram.
The four had escaped from an apartment they had shared with the Libyan during the police raid and took refugee in the area of Al Tajmua Al Khames outside Cairo, the paper said, quoting Interior Minister Ahmad Jamal Eddin.
A cache of arms were seized in the suspects’ hideout, including an explosive vest, four rocket propelled grenades and a laboratory for making explosives, said Al Ahram.
The group had plotted to blow up the Cairo subway and rail stations on the first day of the Muslim festival of Eid Al Adha, whcich started on Friday, said the independent newspaper Al Shorouk.
The suspects had come to know the slain Libyan man when they went to Libya to join an armed revolt against the former regime of Muammar Gaddafi, added the paper.
It quoted unidentified investigators as saying that the Libyan suspect was the group’s head and traded in arms smuggled from his country.
The 28-year-old man, identified only as Hazem, was reportedly linked to Al Qaida, a claim not confirmed by Egyptian security agencies.
Egypt this week said it had seized large quantities of weapons smuggled from neighbouring Libya, which is believed to be awash with arms left behind from the armed uprising against Gaddafi.
