A suicide bomb plot to kill soccer fans at Saturday’s English Premier League match between champions Manchester United and Liverpool was foiled by police, The Sun newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Intelligence chiefs believe al-Qaeda fanatics planned to blow themselves up in the 67 000-capacity Old Trafford crowd.
The suicide bombers planned to sit all around the Theatre of Dreams stadium, police told the newspaper.
However, a United spokesperson said they had been talking to the police but only with regard to normal arrangements for the match.
”We have not been told that Old Trafford is a target for a terrorist attack,” he added.
Ten people were arrested in a series of raids in northern and central England on Monday.
They were described as being North African and Iraqi Kurdish in origin, and were detained under the Terrorism Act.
But it was unclear whether any explosives or weapons had been recovered.
Dave Whatton, assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said the coordinated raids — involving more than 400 officers — were part of an ”ongoing operation related to the threat of terrorism”.
”If successful, any such attack would have caused absolute carnage. Thousands of people could have been killed,” an unnamed police source told the paper.
Bombers planning an attack would have run the risk of being frisked before going into the Old Trafford ground before the 3pm kick-off. — Sapa-AFP