Chechen suspect caught with mercury - report

Moscow police have arrested a suspected Chechen rebel caught with a large amount of poisonous mercury, local reports said today.

Sergei Krymgerei, allegedly a fighter for Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, was carrying a bottle holding about 17.5lbs of mercury when he was stopped, a police spokesman said.

The officers who arrested him used a mattress to stop Krymgerei breaking the bottle, according to the Interfax news agency.

The Chechen has not cooperated with the police and is suspected of plotting to use the mercury for a terrorist attack, it said.

Mercury is a heavy metal which is highly toxic and can damage nervous systems, kidneys and lungs. When spilled, it breaks into beads and vaporises very slowly at room temperature.

City police have been on high alert following a raid by a group of Chechen rebels who seized more than 800 hostages in a Moscow theatre and held them for 58 hours before the building was stormed by Russian special forces.