STOCKHOLM, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- A series of raids late Monday night in the greater Copenhagen area likely prevented a terrorist bombing, said reports reaching here on Tuesday.

    According to the Police Intelligence Service (PET), Danish police, accompanied by bomb experts, searched 11 homes and detained eight men, who Jakob Scharf, PET's director-general, described as militant Islamists with direct connections to international groups such as al-Qaida.

    "The arrests have prevented a terrorist action," Scharf stated during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. The arrests underscore that there are groups and individuals in Denmark that have the will, the ability and the capacity to carry out terrorist acts, he said.

    Scharf added that the arrests were the culmination of a months-long investigation in which PET worked together with foreign intelligence agencies.

    The suspects, all Danish citizens or legal residents, will be arraigned later Tuesday on charges of planning a terrorist attack, according to PET.

    The latest arrests are the third time law enforcement officials have acted to break up suspected terror rings. The first was in 2005.