{"id":16288,"date":"2016-12-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/uncategorized\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\/"},"modified":"2016-12-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-22T00:00:00","slug":"police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/news\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\/","title":{"rendered":"Police foil Melbourne Christmas Day terror plot"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Terror plotters allegedly planned to attack Melbourne&#8217;s Flinders Street Station and Federation Square on Christmas Day, Victoria Police say.<\/h3>\n<p>Heavily armed police raided homes across Melbourne&#8217;s north on Friday morning and made several arrests.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police believe those arrested planned to attack the iconic train station, Federation Square and St Paul&#8217;s Cathedral on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ashton said police had been watching the alleged plotters for some time, and believed they were preparing a multi-mode attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Over that last fortnight that has accelerated,&#8221; Mr Ashton told reporters on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Police believed the threat had been neutralised through the raids, he said<\/p>\n<p>Premier Daniel Andrews said there will be extra police on the streets on Christmas Day to ensure the public feel safe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;(These alleged planned attacks) were not acts of faith &#8211; they were in their planning, acts of evil,&#8221; Mr Andrews told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ashton said police believe the plotters planned to use an explosion and other weapons in the attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We believe it was certainly going to involve an explosive event,&#8221; Mr Ashton said.<\/p>\n<p>Five people have been arrested, four of them were born in Australia, while a fifth is an Egyptian-born Australian citizen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;These are self-radicalised&#8230; (but they were) inspired by ISIS and ISIS propaganda,&#8221; Mr Ashton said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If this had got under our guard this would have been a significant attack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Ashton said police had gathered evidence in the raids that the plotters were planning to use explosives in their attack.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We gathered the makings of an improvised explosive device,&#8221; Mr Ashton said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A substantial number of people could have been injured in the attack, from what we&#8217;ve seen.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Certainly potential for quite a number of people to be injured or killed in this attack.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>About 400 police officers were involved in the raids, which started late on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In relation to this particular plot we think we&#8217;ve got everyone who was involved,&#8221; Mr Ashton said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Andrews said people should go about their business safe in the knowledge that Victoria Police is protecting them.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What was being planned was not an act of faith, was not an act of religious observance, it was instead in its planning, an act of evil, a criminal act,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><em>-AAP<\/em><\/p>\n<h3>MOST POPULAR<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/videos\/this-adelaide-oval-security-guard-caught-a-six-without-moving-a-muscle\"><strong>WATCH &#8212; ADELAIDE OVAL SECURITY GUARD TAKES A CLASSIC CATCH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/sport\/adam-gilchrist-hands-adelaide-a-huge-compliment\"><strong>CRICKET LEGEND HANDS ADELAIDE A MASSIVE COMPLIMENT<\/strong><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Terror plotters allegedly planned to attack Melbourne&#8217;s Flinders Street Station and Federation Square on Christmas Day, Victoria Police say. Heavily armed police raided homes across Melbourne&#8217;s north on Friday morning and made several arrests. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police believe those arrested planned to attack the iconic train station, Federation Square and St Paul&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":16289,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[144],"tags":[],"geo_market":[],"class_list":["post-16288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Police foil Melbourne Christmas Day terror plot - FIVEAA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/news\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police foil Melbourne Christmas Day terror plot\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Terror plotters allegedly planned to attack Melbourne&#8217;s Flinders Street Station and Federation Square on Christmas Day, Victoria Police say. Heavily armed police raided homes across Melbourne&#8217;s north on Friday morning and made several arrests. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police believe those arrested planned to attack the iconic train station, Federation Square and St Paul&#8217;s [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/news\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FIVEAA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/1395FIVEaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-12-22T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/police_crime_scene.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tim Ashdown\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@1395FIVEaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@1395FIVEaa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tim Ashdown\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tim Ashdown\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/c9993afbb4e9c76944cb880fa918b687\"},\"headline\":\"Police foil Melbourne Christmas Day terror plot\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-12-22T00:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":408,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/03\\\/police_crime_scene.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cms.fiveaa.com.au\\\/news\\\/police-foil-melbourne-christmas-day-terror-plot\\\/\",\"name\":\"Police foil Melbourne Christmas Day terror plot - 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