"The Security Sector has been following intelligence regarding the activities of certain individuals, including senior military officers, working to undermine the peace and tranquility of the state … In that regard, several arrests have been made," the police said in a statement published on Monday.
The police added that the suspects planned to use supposedly peaceful protests between August 7 and 10 as a guise "to unleash violent attacks against state institutions and peaceful citizens."
The Sierra Leone Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday that the police did not disclose the names or the number of those arrested and stopped short of calling the alleged attacks a coup.
The report said the arrests came as no surprise to observers writing about the growing confrontation between Sierra Leone's government and the military command, which is concerned about a political crisis sparked by allegations of election fraud.
Last week, President Julius Maada Bio did not travel to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit in the Nigerian capital of Abuja citing the tense security situation at home, the newspaper added.
Sierra Leone held both parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24. The electoral commission announced Bio as the winner of the presidential election a few days later, with over 56.17% of the vote. However, his key rival from the opposition, former Foreign Minister Samura Kamara, has challenged the result.