Norway says Islamist militants planning attack in West have left Syria

Norwegian armed police were deployed for a second day at high-risk locations including airports and train stations, after the police's intelligence unit said on Thursday it received credible information that an attack might take place in the country in coming days.

"We have received information that a group of fighters have left Syria with the aim of carrying out terror attack in the West and Norway was specifically mentioned among their targets," Jon Fitje Hoffmann, the chief analyst for the Police Security Service told TV2 in an interview on Friday.

Hoffmann would not say if the fighters had a specific connection to Norway or if they were part of the country's Muslim community.

A small group of Norway-based militants who have gained combat experience in conflicts around the globe have become the biggest threat to the Nordic nation and up to 50 have traveled to Syria in recent years, police said earlier.

NATO member Norway has been working to clamp down on militant activity. In May it arrested three people suspected of aiding the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, an al Qaeda offshoot fighting in Iraq and Syria that now styles itself Islamic State.

Neighboring Denmark and Sweden had also warned that people traveling to Syria and receiving combat training were posing an increasing security risk.