Russia has said it thwarted attempted drone attacks at this year’s football World Cup.

State-owned Tass news agency has quoted Alexander Bortnikov, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service, as saying his officers took measures to detect and foil attempts by terrorists to use drones during the preparation and hosting of various major political and sports events, most of all during the soccer World Cup.

Russia used thousands of police and cutting-edge surveillance technology to guard the World Cup.

In April, Russia said extremists and nationalist soccer hooligans had planned to attack World Cup events in the city of Samara but were foiled.