Australian Police have arrested five men suspected of planning a series of Christmas Day bomb attacks in the centre of Melbourne.
The arrests follow a terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, that killed twelve people.
The Star reports that the suspects had planned attacks on Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station, neighbouring Federation Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Two of the seven individuals arrested in police raids have been released without being charge. However, five men between the ages 21 and 26 remain in custody and will be charged with planning a terrorist attack. Although the men were not named in the media, police have said that four were born in Australia and the fifth man is Egyptian-born with Australian citizenship.
It is believed that the terrorists were planning to use explosives, knives and a gun in the Christmas Day attacks.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said:
“This is one of the most substantial terrorist plots that have been disrupted over the last several years. Islamist terrorism is a global challenge that affects us all. But we must not be cowed by the terrorists. We will continue to go about our lives as we always have. What these criminals seek to do is to kill. But they also seek to frighten us, to cow us into abandoning our Australian way of life. They want to frighten Australians. They want to divide Australians. They want us to turn on each other. We will not let them succeed.”
This is the twelfth extremist attack plot to be foiled by Australian police in the last two years.Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin commented:
“In terms of events that we have seen over the past few years in Australia, this certainly concerns me more than any other event that I’ve seen. We believe that we have removed the bulk of this particular cell, this group.”
Extra police will be deployed to Melbourne’s city streets in the wake of this disturbing news.
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