WORLD / EUROPE
Russia detains 2 teenagers suspected of planning blasts in Crimean schools
Published: Feb 19, 2020 12:31 PM

Police officers stand guard on the platform of a metro station in Moscow, capital of Russia, on April 3, 2017. (Xinhua/Oleg Brusnikin)


 
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday it had detained two teenagers in the Crimean city of Kerch suspected of plotting explosions in schools.

The FSB said in a statement that it prevented the preparations for terrorist acts in two educational institutions by two Kerch residents born in 2003 and 2004, respectively.

The two suspects are followers of 18-year-old Vladislav Roslyakov, a student who detonated a homemade bomb in the building of the Kerch Polytechnic College in October 2018, killing 20 people.

Homemade explosive devices and their components were seized from the detainees, who tested them on pets.

It said since 2018 the FSB had identified about 150 large youth extremist online communities with about 50,000 internet users.