Three Italian doctors have been arrested in Afghanistan on charges of involvement in a terror plot.

Six Afghans, including an interpreter, have also been arrested. The authorities say the nine suspects planned to assassinate the governor of Helmand, an unruly province in the southwest of the country. The doctors were working at a hospital led by Italian charity Emergency.

The governor of Helmand says bomb vests, weapons and grenades were found at the hospital. One of the Italians reportedly received 370,000 euros to kill the governor. The charity is convinced the doctors are innocent.