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Melbourne Christmas Day 'terror attack' foiled, say Australia police | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Australian police say they have foiled a terror attack planned for Melbourne on Christmas Day. | Australian police say they have foiled a terror attack planned for Melbourne on Christmas Day. |
Five men were arrested in early-morning raids on Friday, Victoria Police chief commissioner Graham Ashton said. | |
Mr Ashton said the threat involved "use of explosives" and other weapons including "knives or a firearm". | Mr Ashton said the threat involved "use of explosives" and other weapons including "knives or a firearm". |
The threat was to prominent city locations including Flinders St Station, Federation Square and St Paul's Cathedral, he said. | |
Mr Ashton said there was no longer a threat to the public. | |
"We don't have any threat over and above that threat that we've currently neutralised," he said at a press conference. | |
'Self-radicalised' | |
Four of the suspects were Australian-born men in their 20s of a Lebanese background, while the fifth was an Australian of Egyptian origin, Mr Ashton said. | |
He claimed they were "self-radicalised" but inspired by propaganda of the so-called Islamic State. | |
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the alleged plans "were not acts of faith". | |
"They were in their planning, acts of evil," he said. | |
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull described terrorism as a challenge that affected everyone. | |
"They want to frighten Australians, they want to divide Australians, they want us to turn on each other," he said. | |
"But we will not let them." | |
Flinders St Station, Federation Square and St Paul's Cathedral occupy three corners of what is arguably Melbourne's most iconic intersection. |