South Africa's secret service foiled a bomb attack planned by a right-wing extremist group against the UN Earth Summit, which ended in Johannesburg's last week, according to a local newspaper report.
South Africa's Sunday Timesreported today that a group of Afrikaner extremists planned to strike the convention center in the suburb of Sandton where more than 100 heads of state and government had gathered for the summit among 80,000 delegates.
The suspected members of an "underground right-wing cell" planned to plant 120 cooking-gas canisters rigged with explosives in and around the Sandton Convention Centre, the report said, adding that the bombs would have been smuggled into the venue as part of the catering equipment.
Security forces were deployed on a scale not seen since the days of apartheid at the Summit and are now in "hot pursuit" of the suspects in five provinces, the paper said.
A police spokesman confirmed the a plot to use booby-trapped gas canisters, of which police had obtained photographs, but said "no evidence at the moment" suggested that the Earth Summit was specifically targeted.
Captain Ronnie Naidoo said the plot was uncovered as part of ongoing investigations since April that led to the arrests of about 10 Afrikaner extremists, charged with high treason and terrorism for plotting attacks aimed at toppling the government of President Thabo Mbeki.
Four were released on bail last week.
AFP