Belgian police on Thursday arrested seven people described as “ardent supporters” of the Islamic State (IS) group and suspected of plotting an attack in Belgium, Belgian federal prosecutors said, as quoted by AFP.

Nine raids were carried out in the west of the country, including in Rouselare, Ostend, Ghent and Menin, a municipality on the border with France, which led to arrests.

The suspects are “mainly of Chechen origin” and “are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack in Belgium.”

“Several scenarios were discussed, the purpose of the planned attack has not yet been determined,” the prosecutor’s office added.

The police operation, carried out with the support of special units of the federal police, is part of an investigation led by an anti-terrorism judge in West Flanders, who after a hearing can decide to place the suspects in pre-trial detention.

“Potential charges are attempted terrorist murder, participation in the activities of a terrorist group and preparation of a terrorist attack,” the prosecutor’s office said.

“Almost all” of the suspects – including the women, according to a spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office – are of Chechen origin, and three of them “also hold Belgian citizenship.”

The detained “are part of a group of ardent supporters of EI,” the same source said.

Belgium has already been a target of the Islamic State group, which in 2016 claimed responsibility for suicide attacks at the airport and subway in the Belgian capital (32 killed on March 22, 2016).

These attacks were carried out by the jihadist cell that was already responsible for the attacks in France on November 13, 2015 (130 dead).