Youth with explosives held

Police today seized large

quantity of explosive materials from a youth near Pollachi in the district.

The youth, Manikandan stopped his moped after seeing a patrol police team on Pollachi-Udumalpet Highway around this morning and attempted to run away.

However, police nabbed him and found 400 gelatine sticks and 300 detonators in a bag, tied to the vehicle, police said.

Though Manikandan claimed that he was taking the materials for digging wells in and around the area, he was taken into custody since there was no valid documents for the purchase of the materials, they said.