GROZNY. June 17 (Interfax-AVN) - Federal sapper and engineer units prevented three large-scale terrorist acts in Chechnya on Monday, a source in the regional operational headquarters managing anti-terrorist efforts in the North Caucasus told Interfax-Military News Agency.
"Sappers defused a landmine made on the basis of a 152-mm artillery shell and a foreign-made radio on the roadside of Petropavlovsky Highway in the Leninsky district of Grozny," the source said.
Federal law-enforcers learned about the section of the crowded highway that could be mined from a former rebel who decided to lay down arms, he noted.
According to the source, another terrorist act was to take place on Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street that vehicles use for reaching the Grozny airport and the stationing area of the 46th Interior Ministry Forces operational brigade.
The landmine was planted close to a bus stop. The driver of a minibus found traces of a fresh excavation early in the morning and notified the nearest checkpoint on his suspicions, the source said.
Sappers went to examine the area and found an explosive device made of a six-kilo piece of plastic explosive.
One more landmine was found during a search operation on the Nozhai-Yurt - Engenoi motorway. It consisted of a 152-mm shell reinforced with TNT and plastic explosive.
"The shell's cover was fitted with metal pieces in order to render more killing power to the landmine," the source said.
According to him, law-enforcers are taking measures to detect and detain the persons engaged in planting the landmines.