Maputo - Four foreign nationals have been arrested for attempting to sabotage the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi river in central Mozambique, police announced on Tuesday.
The suspects were caught putting an unknown corrosive chemical in the turbines of the hydro-electric dam in Tete province, national police spokesman Pedro Cossa said.
They were described as a 50-year-old German soldier and architect, a 21-year-old South African, a 30-year-old Portuguese hotel worker and a 28-year-old pilot from Botswana.
Tete police chief Jamal Chande said samples of the substance had been sent to the capital for analysis and criminal charges have been filed against the men.
Police confiscated 500 kilos of the substance.
"They are suspected of attempting something. Now they were transferred to the judiciary in Tete to face the accusation," he said.
The Cahora Bassa dam, which was built by Mozambique's former colonial power Portugal in 1974, has a capacity of 14 000 megawatts of power. It is a key source of electricity for Mozambique and its neighbours, South Africa and Malawi. - Sapa-dpa