There is evidence that Daesh group leaders are plotting terrorist acts in Russia, Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov said at a National Anti-terrorism Committee session Tuesday.

Bortnikov said "At present, a large amount of operational information is coming out indicating that leaders of terrorist groups operating in the Middle East as part of the so-called Islamic State [Daesh] are intent on carrying out terrorist attacks in various regions of the world, including in Russia," reported the Russian news agency Sputnik.

On April 3, an explosion occurred in the St. Petersburg underground on the stretch of rail between the Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut metro stations at around 3 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT). The blast killed at least 14 people, according to Russian Minister of Healthcare Veronika Skvortsova. Forty-nine people were wounded.

Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a criminal investigation into a suspected terrorist attack but is also checking other versions. 

A total of 16 terror attacks involving citizens of CIS countries were prevented in Russia last year, Bortnikov said.

"Last year alone, 16 terror attacks were prevented in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnoyarsk, Yekaterinburg, Tula, Ufa, Sochi, Novosibirsk and Nizhny Novgorod," Bortnikov said.

Source: MENA