Police Foil Terrorism Plot to ‘Bring Down an Airplane,’ Australia PM Says

Police Foil Terrorism Plot to ‘Bring Down an Airplane,’ Australia PM Says
Police man a check point in the Sydney inner suburb of Surry Hills on July 29, 2017. WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images
|Updated:

Australian police foiled a plot by terrorists who were planning to bring down an airplane, the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said Sunday, July 30. 

Turnbull confirmed there had been a “major joint counter terrorism operation” to disrupt a terrorist plot and said the operation is still ongoing. 

“At this stage, four people have been arrested and a considerable amount of material has been seized by police,” Turnbull told reporters at a press conference. 

Police told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that the four men were arrested on Saturday across the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, immediately south of the CBD, and Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl in the south-west. Police found items that could be used to make homemade bombs when raiding the Surry Hills property. 

Authorities believed that the group planned to smuggle the devices onto a plane in order to blow it up.

“We do believe it is Islamic-inspired terrorism. Exactly what is behind this is something that we will need to investigate fully,”said  Australian Federal Police (AFP) commissioner Andrew Colvin.

Colvin added that specific details of the attack and its location and timing remain unclear. 

Seven Network television reported that 40 riot squad officers wearing gas masks stormed the Surry Hills house before an explosives team found the suspicious device, according to CBS

Security at Sydney Airport was heightened on Thursday after authorities first received information about the terrorist plot on Wednesday, reported ABC. The increased security measures were also extended to all major international and domestic terminals around Australia on Thursday night.

Police walk past passengers as they patrol Sydney Airport on July 30, 2017. (WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)
Police walk past passengers as they patrol Sydney Airport on July 30, 2017. WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images