(dpa) - Chinese police have arrested 35 terrorist suspects accused of planning to kidnap Olympic athletes, spectators and journalists, the Public Security Ministry said Thursday.
The group had set up a network in at least four cities in China's central Asian region of Xinjiang, recruiting explosives experts and planning suicide bombings in the regional capital and other Chinese cities, ministry spokesman Wu Heping told reporters.
Police arrested the 35 suspects between late March and early April, seizing 9.5 kilograms of raw material for explosives, eight detonators, two explosive devices and some "'holy war' publicity material," Wu said.
In January, Xinjiang police had arrested another 10 suspected members of a terrorist group who confessed to planning attacks during the Beijing Olympics in August, he said.
"Police investigations indicated that the group was sent by East Turkestan separatists from abroad to carry out anti-Olympic terrorist attacks," Wu said.
