Australian cops charge three men over plot to undertake ‘mass’ attack
SYDNEY Police said yesterday they arrested three men who were allegedly preparing to attack a "mass gathering" in Melbourne, less than two weeks after a man was killed in Australia's second-largest city in what police said was an act of terrorism.
Australian federal and state police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, and other agencies that form part of the Joint Counter Terrorism Team carried out the arrests yesterday morning.
Police said three men, Hanifi Halis, 21, Samed Erikioglu, 26 and Ertunc Erikioglu, 30, were taken into custody after they allegedly sought to acquire a semi-automatic gun to carry out an attack.
All three men were charged with planning a terrorist act, police said. They are all Australian citizens and their passports were cancelled earlier this year.
"We now have sufficient evidence to act in relation to preventing a terrorist attack," Mr Graham Ashton, Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police, told reporters.
Police said the suspects had yet to decide on the site of their planned attack but they believed it was imminent.
"They were certainly looking at a place of mass gathering, where there would be crowds," Mr Ashton said. "They were trying to focus on trying to have a place where they could kill as many people as possible."
NULLIFED THREAT
Police said they believed the arrests had nullified any threat from the group.
They added they are now combing through 17,000 intercepted phone calls and 10,500 messages exchanged between the group as part of evidence collected during their arrests. Police said it will take several months to transcribe the calls and messages.
Australia has been on heightened alert since 2014 for attacks by home-grown militants returning from fighting in the Middle East or their supporters.- REUTERS
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