Canadian police say they have thwarted a deadly al-Qaeda-supported plan to derail a passenger train as it crossed the Whirpool Rapids Bridge connecting Canada to the United States, plunging its many would-be victims 225 feet into the raging Niagara River.
“After an extensive and complex criminal investigation,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) representatives said during a Monday press conference, police arrested and charged two individuals with terrorism related offenses.
The suspects have been identified as 30-year-old Chiheb Esseghaier and 35-year-old Raed Jaser of Montreal and Toronto, respectively.
Police said the men are not Canadian citizens, but wouldn’t say where they are from. They face charges of conspiring to carry out an attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group.
A source said the “Amtrak Maple Leaf line, which runs from Toronto to New York City, was targeted,” the Daily Mail notes, citing Reuters. “Canadian officials declined to confirm which trains were in the crosshairs.”
