US police believe they have foiled a plot to carry out a gun attack on school pupils by three New Jersey teenagers.
The three, Mr Matthew Lovett (18) and two unnamed accomplices aged 14 and 15 were armed with rifles, swords, knives and 2,000 rounds of ammunition when they surrendered to police in Oaklyn, New Jersey - a suburb less than 10 miles from Philadelphia - after an attempted weekend carjacking, police said.
The trio were allegedly planning to target three middle school students from Oaklyn and then carry out random attacks on as many people as possible.
"It's extremely like Columbine with the exception of instead of walking into a school, they were going to drive around town and be mobile that way," said Oaklyn Police Chief Christopher Ferrari.
In April 1999, two teens who belonged to a group called the "Trench Coat Mafia" killed 13 people before taking their own lives at Columbine High School in Colorado.
The Philadelphia Inquirerreports today that the three teenagers call themselves "Warriors of Freedom," practice martial arts and dress in black to imitate characters in the Hollywood films The Matrixand its sequel Matrix Reloaded.
Their plot was foiled early yesterday when the three tried to stop a motorist in an attempted carjacking, police said. The motorist contacted an Oaklyn police officer, who cornered the youths and forced them to surrender.
Mr Lovett who graduated from high school this year in nearby Collingswood, New Jersey, was charged with aggravated assault, illegal possession of firearms and carjacking. His two alleged accomplices were not identified because of age.
All three are expected to face murder conspiracy charges.