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Tight Security Welcomes Sochi Olympic Torch To Volatile Dagestan

<p>Terror threats continued to dominate the run-up to the Sochi Olympics as the torch relay arrived in volatile Dagestan amid high security.</p>
The Olympic Torch for the 2014 Sochi Games is paraded in a soccer stadium in Makhachkala, capital city of Russia's restive republic of Dagestan.
The Sochi Olympic Torch is paraded in a soccer stadium in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala on Monday.Jamie Novogrod / NBC News

The Olympic torch arrived in Russia's volatile Dagestan region amid heightened security Monday as terrorism concerns continued to dominate the run-up to next month's Winter Olympics.

Officials reduced the route through Makhachkala after a local militant group claimed responsibility for two suicide bombings which killed 34 people in the city of Volgograd in December.

According to the independent news website The Caucasian Knot, 270 torchbearers were slated to take the flame through the streets. But following the attacks claimed by Islamist group Vilayat Daghestan, the number of torchbearers was reduced to just 67 and the procession route was confined to a local soccer stadium.

Dagestan is a mainly Muslim province at the heart of the insurgency to create an Islamist state in the North Caucasus and is hit by violence almost daily.

The torch reached the semi-autonomous republic one day after a threat assessment by the U.K. government seen by the BBC suggested the likelihood of an attack before or during the Sochi Games was "very likely."

The BBC reported the document said the main danger was from a group called Imarat Kavkaz, which has repeatedly threatened the Olympics.

More than 10,000 American athletes and spectators are expected to attend the games starting Feb. 7.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Saturday that the U.S. has made arrangements to extract its citizens from Russia "if we need to."

On Friday, a four-minute video posted online by an ally of al Qaeda emerged warning again of terror at Sochi.

Russia is hunting for at least five suspected terrorists – some of them so-called "black widow" female suicide bombers – allegedly plotting attacks against the relay or games themselves.