As well as the explosive device, packed with shrapnel, the unnamed suspects were also in possession of grenades and ammunition.

"Security forces have detained five members of a banned international terrorist organisation," the National Anti-terror Committee said in a statement.

"The anti-terrorism operation discovered and seized ammunition, grenades and a homemade explosive device packed with shrapnel ready for use."

This latest scare comes less than a month before the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi 2014 Olympics and follows a series of attacks that only serve to highlight the security threats Russia is facing from the volatile North Caucasus region, where insurgents have been seeking an Islamic state.

Two suicide bomb attacks in Volgograd killed 34 people last month ©AFP/Getty Images


Two back-to-back suicide bomb attacks killed 34 in the city of Volgograd last month, while the discovery of six bodies and at least one booby-trapped car in the Stavropol region - which was also targeted in late December when a car bomb killed three people outside the traffic police offices there - last week sparked the launch of another new anti-terror operation.

Although no groups have claimed responsibility for the bombings, Islamist militants have threatened to attack Sochi 2014 - for which the biggest security operation in Olympic history is in place, with rebel leader Doku Umarov last year urging his followers to use "maximum force" to prevent the staging of the Games.

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