Canadian Authorities have reportedly prevented what they say was an al-Qaeda-supported terrorist attack that aimed to disrupt a major North American rail transit route.

Two people have been arrested and charged with conspiring to carry out the attack and murder people in association with a terrorist group, police revealed at a news conference in Toronto.

The suspects – Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35 – had been under surveillance since August 2012 after authorities were tipped off about one of the men.

They will attend a bail hearing in Toronto today.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation adds that the suspects were under investigation for over a year before brought into custody, and assistance was provided by entities on both sides of the border including the United States’ FBI and Department of Homeland Security Department, although the plot itself involved attacking a train on Canadian soil.

Police do not believe the plot is related to the terrorist attack in Boston, Massachusetts last week that left three people dead, but do allege that the Canadian operation was to some extent supported by an Al-Qaeda affiliate in Iran. Iranian authorities, however, have vowed Tehran has no links to the group.

The suspects, say investigators, were spotted routinely monitoring train activity in the Toronto area. An arrest had originally been planned for three weeks earlier, but their apprehension was put on hold for reasons not yet known.

The pair were allegedly planning to target and derail a Via Rail passenger train in the Toronto area, and are alleged to have received “direction and guidance” from al Qaeda “elements” in Iran.

Police said there was “no indication that these attacks were state-sponsored” and declined to say where the suspects were from.

They confirmed they were not Canadian citizens but had been in the country “a significant amount of time”.

The suspects’ plans were “not based on their ethnic origins but on an ideology,” police said.

“This is the first known al Qaeda-planned attack that we’ve experienced in Canada,” Superintendent Doug Best said.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said the claim that the men were backed by Tehran-supported al Qaeda was “ridiculous”.

“This is the most hilarious thing I’ve heard in my 64 years,” he said.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews warned later that the “arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada”.

Canadian authorities, the FBI and US Homeland Security police and agents have been involved in a year-long cross-border operation that led to the arrests in Toronto and Montreal.

Assistant Commissioner James Maliza, of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said: “Had this plot been carried out it would have resulted in innocent people being killed, or seriously injured.”

His colleague Chief Superintendent Jennifer Strachan added: “We are alleging that these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to initiate a terrorist attack.

“They watched trains and railways in the Greater Toronto area. It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent.”

Sky’s US correspondent Amanda Walker said: “They are really hailing this as a successful operation, something that they have managed to prevent.

“It does seem they have treated this as a very serious and major threat which was certainly well on in the planning.

“But not far enough for the public or railway staff to be in any immediate danger.

“So obviously they had a difficult act here to actually balance the timing of when they made these arrests – getting enough intelligence, enough information, but not taking that up to the point when the public would have been in real danger.”

The news comes one week after twin bombings at the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded 180 – and as Canada’s parliament debates a proposal to beef up anti-terror measures.

A US Justice Department official in Washington said there was no connection between the thwarted terrorist plot and last Monday’s attacks in Boston.

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