MOSCOW, March 9. /TASS/. A US embassy staff member attempted to enter Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on Saturday morning carrying a bomb with a fuse but with no explosives in his luggage, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told TASS.

"On the morning of March 9, personnel scanning the luggage of a US embassy staff member detected an item that looked like a mortar bomb," the source said. "They called bomb technicians who confirmed it was indeed a bomb with a fuse but without explosives, though there were traces of explosives inside the bomb’s body," he added.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, "the airport police immediately informed the US embassy about the incident." "We expect the embassy to explain the staff member’s behavior," the ministry source noted.

At the same time, he said that the ministry considered the incident to be a deliberate provocation.

"Since the 2001 terrorist attacks, the United States has been paying the closest attention to aviation security so he could not but understand that a bomb in his luggage was serious. It means he did it consciously," the source said.

The US staff member said he was leaving Russia as his assignment at the US embassy was over and claimed to have bought the bomb for his personal collection. The bomb was seized from the man who then took a flight to New York.