MOSCOW — Police have found about 80 kilograms (175 pounds) of explosives, a large number of firearms and several ready-to-use explosive devices in an apartment in southeast Moscow, a police official said.

"Operatives have found 30 firearms, six grenade launchers, several ready-to-use explosive devices...more than a 100 grenades, several thousand rounds of ammunition, and about 67 kilograms of explosives in an apartment on 43 Pererva Street (near Bratislavskaya metro station)," the official said.

According to police, it was a random discovery. "The new owner of the apartment found the cache and called the police," the official said.

The prosecutor's office said earlier the apartment used to belong to a man who died in prison. Police did not confirm rumors spread by media that the cache was set up by terrorists in preparation for the Dubrovka theater siege in 2002.

"We do not have such information," the official said. "The prosecutor's office has joined the ongoing investigation."

In October 2002, 129 people died in a theater in Moscow's Dubrovka district after the audience was taken hostage by Chechen rebels during a popular Nord-Ost performance.