Canadian security forces yesterday thwarted a plot to blow up a rail line between Canada and the United States.

Police charge two residents with an al-Qaeda linked plot

Later yesterday Canadian police charged two residents with an al-Qaeda linked plot to “carry out a terrorist attack” against a passenger train.

The Royal Canadian Mountain Police named the two accused as Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, from the Montreal and Toronto areas respectively

“While the RCMP believed that these individuals had the capacity and intent to carry out these criminal acts, there was no imminent threat to the general public, rail employees, train passengers or infrastructure,” the police said in a statement.

US security and law enforcement sources also said the suspects had sought to attack the railroad between Toronto and New York City. Canadian media said two men had been arrested after raids in Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two biggest cities.

The police statement said various Canadian security forces had conducted joint operations in the two cities.

A US law enforcement source said the alleged plot was not linked with last week’s Boston Marathon bombings.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said the operations was conducted with the US Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.

The arrests follow not only the Boston bombings but revelations that Canadians took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January.