Passenger arrested in Bulgaria for bullets on plane

SOFIA, Sep 8 (Reuters) Bulgarian police arrested a passenger for carrying ammunition on a plane after a tip off from a foreign intelligence service, authorities and media said today.

Interior Minister Rumen Petkov told the daily Trud that the National Security Service received ''information that a terrorist attack was being prepared on a plane supposed to take off from a Bulgarian airport.'' He added: ''We found ammunition cartridges in a passenger's luggage. The passenger was supposed to fly on the plane but was detained.'' When contacted by Reuters, the ministry and police refused to give further details on the case.

But media, citing police sources, said it was an August 30 flight from Bulgaria's Black Sea port of Varna to Moscow and the passenger arrested was a 55-year-old Russian woman.

Bulgarian National Radio said rifle cartridges were found in the woman's checked luggage and no gun was found on the plane.

The ministry's Chief Secretary, Ilia Iliev, said Bulgaria had received the tip off from the foreign intelligence service on August 28 or 29 but would give no other information pending an investigation.

''I cannot confirm that the bullets were checked in the passenger's luggage,'' Iliev told Bulgarian National Radio.

Reuters PB GC1226