London: A suicide bomb plot to kill thousands of soccer fans at Saturday’s high-profile match between Manchester United and Liverpool has been dramatically foiled by police with the arrest of ten terror suspects.

Quoting intelligence chiefs, London tabloid The Sun reported that Al-Qaeda fanatics had planned to blow themselves up amid 67,000 unsuspecting supporters.

A source, according to the report, said: “The target was Old Trafford.”

According to the report, the suicide plotters had already bought the tickets for various positions in the 67,000-capacity stadium.

Thousands of people watching Manchester United’s home game against Liverpool would have been killed as the Islamic fanatics blew themselves up, the report said. But armed cops foiled the plot in a series of raids conducted early morning on Monday in northern and central England.

Ten people were arrested after a massive surveillance operation involving British anti-terror units and American authorities.

Quoting a police source, the report said: “The plot involved several individual bombers in separate parts of the stadium. If successful, any such attack would have caused absolute carnage. Thousands of people could have been killed.”

More than 400 police swooped on Monday after a “major terrorist figure” under surveillance moved to Manchester.

Police and intelligence organisations believe he came to direct the massacre, which would have been the first Al-Qaeda-style outrage in Britain.

Nine men and one woman were arrested — all Iraqi Kurds or from north Africa.

Special branch and the security services had been monitoring their movements and eavesdropping mobile phone calls for months.

The operation involved the US national security agency and GCHQ, the government’s intelligence listening post.