Morocco’s counter-terrorism police announced on Thursday that they had foiled a plot to “blow up security headquarters”, adding that they had arrested four suspects with links to the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Sahel region of Africa.

A serious terrorist plot involving explosives has been foiled, the director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ), Haboub Cherkaoui, told a press conference at the bureau’s headquarters in Salé, near Sé.

Four people, including three brothers, are suspected of involvement in the plot. They were arrested on Sunday in the Hedd el-Soualem area on the outskirts of Casablanca.

Investigations revealed that they were preparing to carry out bomb attacks on sensitive security headquarters, a market and public shops frequented by Moroccans and foreigners, he said.