Swiss officials foiled an attempt by Russian spies to bug world leaders at Davos - while disguised as plumbers, a report has claimed.
The report comes as high profile politicians ans business people, including Donald Trump , meet in the alpine village.
According to paper the Tages-Anzeiger, two Russians were stopped by Swiss police at the venue of the elite gathering in August.
The pair presented diplomatic passports and left the country, the paper said.
Alarms were apparently raised about the pair because of their long stay in the high-end resort.
Local police confirmed that the pair were checked but would not confirm reports in the local media that the two were suspected of attempting to bug the venue which hosts the gathering of the world's financial and political elite.
A spokesman said: “It is true that we checked two Russian citizens in Davos and they identified themselves with diplomatic passports, but we could not ascertain any reason to detain them."
A spokesman for the Russian embassy in Bern dismissed the report, saying two Russian diplomats accredited outside Switzerland had been checked and allowed to go on their way.
“Diplomatic passports are given to high-ranking officials, not to manual laborers,” he said. “I think this was probably a dumb joke.”
