TASS said the target of the terrorist attack was to be in the capital Moscow.
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The FSB said several men were detained, including two who said they had been trained by Islamic State militants and were plotting a terrorist attack on Moscow’s public transport.
News agencies are awaiting official confirmation of the information.
“An evacuation of the building’s residents was carried out, its gas supply system was switched off and the FSB’s gas-engineering lab arrived at the scene,” the Federal Security Service said. “The reconnaissance revealed [5 kilos] of explosives, produced [from] ammonium nitrate.”
“At least three of the ten detainees come from Syria”, he said.
“An address was located in Moscow where 6 to 11 persons periodically stayed, a few of whom had received military training in Islamic State camps in Syria”, the statement reads.
Footage of Sunday’s raid shown on Rossiya state TV channel showed police officers carrying sacks of “evidence” out of the building, including a washing machine that “could have been used as a hiding place”.
Western forces have suggested much of Russia’s bombing has in fact been targeted to aiding Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad’s strongholds in the country.
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Russian Federation – which has battled its own extremist insurgency in the volatile North Caucasus – says that a few 2,000 of its citizens are fighting in the ranks of IS.
