Kenyan police arrested a suspected al Shabaab movement fighter in Mombasa on Tuesday and recovered weapons that had been intended for use in aborted New Year's Eve attacks on the coastal city, media reports quoted a senior government official as saying.

Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa told a news conference that four other suspects had escaped the raid, including two militants from the Somali-based Islamist group wanted for major attacks on Kenya since 2013.

"These men are behind major plots for attacks in the country and are linked to the Garissa University and Lamu attacks," Marwa said.

"They had planned to attack public beaches in Mombasa during the New Year when there were many people, but they were deterred by the level of security we had mounted there."

Al Shabaab movement killed 148 students in the attack on Garissa University last April. In June 2014, the group killed 65 people over a 24-hour period in and around Mpeketoni in Lamu county, also in Kenya's east. It was also responsible for a raid on Nairobi's Westgate Mall in 2013 that killed 67 people.

Source: MENA