Guardian : Terror plot closes British Embassy

Terror plot closes British Embassy

Press Association | October 29, 2007

The security of the British Embassy in Azerbaijan was under review after it was closed to visitors amid reports of a foiled terror attack against foreigners.

Diplomatic sites in the capital Baku were said by the Azerbaijani government to have been among the targets of a planned "large-scale, horrifying terror attack".

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the situation was being "kept under review" and no decision had yet been made on when the building would reopen.

The closure has been added to the official travel advice but there has been no move to warn against travel to the mostly-Muslim state which borders Russia and Iran.

Although the FCO website notes that the political situation there is "calm", it also warns that the country faces a terror threat and that attacks could be "indiscriminate and against civilian targets and places frequented by foreigners".

Azerbaijan's national security ministry said its forces tracked down the radical Islamic group plotting the attack in a weekend sweep in which one was killed and others arrested.

Copyright (c) Press Association Ltd. 2007, All Rights Reserved.