Riyadh, Dec 22 : The Saudi security forces have arrested suspected al Qaeda operatives, who were planning to carry out a terror attack on the occasion of Hajj.

“The authorities have arrested a group which planned to carry out a terrorist act aimed at harming security and damaging the (hajj) pilgrimage, ” The News quoted Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansur al-Turqi, as saying.

A Dubai-based television has earlier said that Saudi authorities had arrested an al-Qaeda linked group that was planning to carry out attacks during the hajj.

The arrests in that case were made in several different cities, sources had said.

According to the Dubai-based news channel, members of the group were arrested “three days before the start of the hajj season”, or at the end of last week.

The authorities were on high alert this year because of the participation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the first president from the Islamic republic to take part in the hajj.

A total of 2,454,325 pilgrims from 181 nations, 1,707,814 of them from outside the Gulf state, performed this year's pilgrimage, according to official figures. (ANI)