CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Police in Australia have detained five men suspected of planning a series of Christmas Day attacks using explosives, knives and a gun in the heart of the country’s second-largest city, officials said Friday.
The suspects were inspired by the Islamic State group and planned attacks on Melbourne’s iconic Flinders Street train station, neighboring Federation Square, a fashionable bar and restaurant precinct, and St. Paul’s Cathedral, an Anglican church, Victoria state Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said.
He said they had been plotting the attack for three weeks. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was one of the most substantial plots that have been disrupted over the last several years.
The arrests came after a truck smashed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing 12 people. A manhunt is underway for the person behind that attack, which prompted increases in security around the world.
Two of seven people initially arrested in raids Thursday night and Friday morning in Melbourne – a 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman – were released without being charged, police said.