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29 March 2024

Australia arrests 5 teens for plotting terror attack

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott (R) speaks to the media as Australian Federal Police deputy commissioner Michael Phelan (L) listens in Sydney on April 18, 2015. Seven search warrants were executed in Melbourne by a joint counter-terrorism team, two months after Prime Minister Tony Abbott warned the threat from home-grown extremists was worsening. (AFP)

Published
By AP

Five Australian teenagers were arrested in Melbourne on Saturday on suspicion of plotting terrorist attacks on police officers in the latest security scare in the country linked to militants, officials said.

The suspects included two 18-year-olds who are alleged to have been preparing an attack in the country, including targeting police, Australian Federal Police and Victoria state police said in a statement.

Another 18-year-old was arrested on weapons charges and two other men, aged 18 and 19, were in custody and assisting police, according to the statement.

The arrests took place in Melbourne, where a joint counterterrorism team served a total of seven warrants Saturday morning. Police said they were conducting searches at properties.

Australia's government has raised the country's terror warning level.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has warned that the terrorism threat in Australia has escalated with one-third of all terrorism-related arrests since 2001 occurring in the last six months.

At least 110 Australians have gone to Iraq and Syria to fight, and the nation's security agency is juggling more than 400 high-priority counterterrorism investigations — more than double the number a year ago.