The FBI arrested an 18-year-old man in North Carolina after disrupting a planned new year’s eve attack targeting a grocery store and fast-food restaurant, authorities said on Friday.

Christian Sturdivant is charged with attempting to provide material support to the Daesh group.

Investigators said he shared details of his plan with an undercover FBI agent posing as a sympathiser.

Prosecutors said his online messages, combined with a recent search of his home, indicated he intended to use knives and hammers in the attacks.

US Attorney for Western North Carolina Russ Ferguson said the FBI kept Sturdivant under constant surveillance in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, including on Christmas, to prevent any risk to the public.

“At no point was the public in harm’s way,” Ferguson said.

Sturdivant was arrested on Wednesday and appeared in federal court on Friday. Another hearing is scheduled for January 7.

Investigators found a handwritten note at Sturdivant’s home listing details of the intended attacks and the number of victims he hoped to target at a Burger King restaurant and an unnamed grocery store in Mint Hill, a suburb of Charlotte.

The note also stated he intended to confront police and “hoped to die by the hands of police,” according to an FBI affidavit.

Searches of his home and phone uncovered what authorities described as a manifesto detailing the plot.

FBI Special Agent in Charge James Barnacle said Sturdivant “was willing to sacrifice himself.”

Authorities said the investigation began last month after linking Sturdivant to a social media account promoting Daesh, including violent imagery and references to the group’s former leader, Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.

Sturdivant faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.