5 seized in plot to attack Danish papers

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Five men were arrested Wednesday in a plot to strike Danish newspapers that printed Prophet Mohammed cartoons, Danish and Swedish officials said.

"An imminent terror attack has been foiled," said Jakob Scharf, chief of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service. The agency said searches revealed at least one machine gun with a silencer, live ammunition and "plastic strips that can be used as handcuffs," The New York Times reported.

Scharf said the suspects, "militant Islamists with relations to international terror networks," were plotting to storm the Copenhagen building housing Jyllands-Posten and Politiken and "kill as many as possible of the persons present." Jyllands-Posten commissioned the cartoons in 2005, which were republished by Politiken and other European papers in solidarity after a violent Muslim backlash.

Four of the suspects were arrested near Copenhagen and a fifth in Stockholm. Three are Swedish citizens, Swedish police said.

Danish authorities said four of the men entered from Sweden Tuesday night or early Wednesday and intended to attack within days.

Swedish police said they did not seem connected to an attempted suicide bombing in Stockholm Dec. 11.