According to The Guardian (UK) on July 12, Kosovo authorities cut off the water supply to tens of thousands of people in the city of Pristina after police arrested five suspects with ties to the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) terrorist group accused of plotting to poison a water reservoir in the city.

Pristina city of Kosovo. (Source: theguardian.com)

Pristina's water authority said the water supply had been temporarily shut off since the morning of 11 July "for security reasons" and water samples were being tested for suspicious substances.

Kosovo police arrested three young men on suspicion near the Badovac reservoir, which supplies water to nearly half the population of Pristina, a city of more than 200,000. Police later arrested two more at other locations in Kosovo.

All five men have been charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism. Reuters news agency quoted a police source as saying that two of the five had been arrested last year on suspicion of traveling to Syria.

Kosovo police have been on alert in recent weeks after several Kosovar men appeared in IS propaganda videos warning of attacks on various targets in Kosovo, including water supplies.

Security officials say more than 200 people from Kosovo have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, and more than 30 of them are believed to have died. In addition, Kosovo authorities are also concerned about the risk of these people returning and carrying out terrorist activities in their homeland./.

(According to VN+)