Terror raids in Sydney: Police storm homes in Lakemba, Wiley Park, Punchbowl and Surry Hills
UPDATE: Counter-terrorism authorities are applying to the Federal Court in Sydney to extend the detention of four men arrested in raids, allegedly involving a plot to bomb a plane.
NSW
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COUNTER-TERRORISM authorities are today applying to the Federal Court in Sydney for an extension of time to detain the four men arrested in raids yesterday allegedly involving a plot to bomb a plane.
Under Commonwealth laws, a person can be detained for up to seven days with a warrant from a Federal Court judge.
Police said that it could take several days to complete the searches of the men’s homes.
An alleged terrorist plot to bring down a domestic flight with a bomb was at the centre of the series of raids across Sydney yesterday targeting an alleged Islamic extremist cell.
Wearing gas masks and ballistic armour, backed by fire crews and specially trained paramedics, officers from the Joint Counter Terrorism Team stormed four properties in Sydney’s west — at Sproule St, Lakemba, Renown Ave, Wiley Park, Victoria Rd, Punchbowl and Craig St, Punchbowl — and a terrace on Goodlet Lne, Surry Hills, in the inner city.
In Lakemba, Australian Federal Police locked down an entire apartment block, forcing residents to show ID cards to gain entry.
Forensic teams carrying ladders and tools searched a mid-level unit and left holding unidentified bags of evidence.
Officers were even seen digging in the garden outside the unit block.
One neighbour said he often saw people in religious robes gather outside the unit block.
“You’d have 15 or 20 of them talking outside and they would all go into the unit together,” he said.
“It was never on a specific day but they did it weekly.”
In Punchbowl a woman, from Lebanon, said police stormed her family’s Craig St unit about 5pm last night and left about 11.30pm.
“I just have lunch with my kids and everyone go, I say goodbye to my daughter outside and (the police) come,” the mother-of-four said.
“I hear my husband screaming and yelling. We were not allowed to go back home to see what happen to him.”
She said the police asked her where their car was and told them they were raiding their home due to “terror”.
Police searched the couple’s house while they waited with their neighbours.
She said her husband, who uses a walking frame, was disabled and had spent a lot of time in hospital.
“We were shocked,” she said. “My husband was playing on the iPad.”
The raids had been planned for several days and are understood to have been brought forward for operational reasons.
A law enforcement official said officers involved in the searches were looking for material that could be used to make an improvised explosive device or “some other method” to bring down a domestic passenger plane.
“There was a threat of a device and an aircraft,” the official said, but added that its credibility was still being determined.
Four men were taken into custody and were helping police with inquiries last night.
Some media reports claimed a suspicious device needed to be removed from the Surry Hills property.
Neighbour Daniel Mozumder, 40, said the man arrested in Renown Ave, Wiley Park, was aged in his 50s and lived a low key existence.
“He didn’t mix with anyone, he kept himself to himself and sometimes family members would visit; the only time you saw him is when he stood in the backyard watching his nieces and nephews playing cricket.”
Another neighbour said he lived there with his brother and the two nurtured a community of stray cats.
“He and his brother would feed about 15 cats and when we complained that they were bringing ticks and diseases into the block, they would walk off,” the woman who asked not to be named said.
“He was a strange man, he never looked at you in the eye when you spoke to him.”
A neighbour on Craig St, Punchbowl said they were having a barbecue last night when they heard yelling.
She said police talked to a man in a wheelchair and four other women.
“One of the ladies was screaming that’s how we noticed,” the neighbour said. “There were police going in and out ... they were searching all night.
“We were scared to go outside ... we didn’t know what it was about.
“We don’t really know them, we just say hi because they’re Lebanese as well. “They seem like good people.”
Two AFP officers were still at the unit this morning but left about 8.40am.
At Surry Hills, where parts of Cleveland St were shut down from 1pm to create an exclusion zone, a man shrouded under a bed sheet was escorted into an ambulance by police before being taken into custody.
As the arrest unfolded, paramedics attended to the man, who had a bandage covering his head, and a woman whose wrists had been cable-tied.
An elderly woman was also escorted from the scene by police, her head covered by a leopard-skin print jacket.
Several women wearing hijabs were also at the scene, as was a young boy.
When asked why he’d been arrested, the man said “No idea”, then added: “They bashed me.”
Neighbours described the man’s parents as a “lovely couple” who held barbecues every Sunday.
Relatives of two of the men arrested told media last night that they “love Australia”.
Neighbour Kate Harrison said: “There must have been at least 40 riot squad police with huge guns.”
Witnesses reported hearing a lot of screaming and dogs barking as police raided the property.
At Sproule St, Australian Federal Police forensic officers were seen entering a property wearing gas masks while paramedics in helmets stood on standby.
A northern section of the road was blocked off for much of the night, but neighbours were allowed to return to their homes about 10.30pm.
It is understood the men arrested were known to police and not part of a recent crop of radicalised youths quickly recruited via the internet to carry out extremist attacks.
Renown Ave, Wiley Park, was the scene of a previous anti-terror raid in 2005, codenamed Operation Pendennis. That investigation involved a conspiracy to blow up public spaces in NSW and Victoria.
Among those arrested at the time was Khaled Sharrouf, who left Australia after being released from jail to join Islamic State in Syria.
The alleged scheme at the centre of yesterday’s operation appeared to signal a move back to the more sophisticated attacks of years past involving the bombing of buildings and infrastructure, an official said.
Recently foiled plots in both NSW and Victoria have involved crude weapons such as kitchen knives and vehicles to inspire terror.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull issued a written statement saying a number of agencies had been working towards preventing and disrupting the potential for an attack.
“I have been kept closely briefed on the progress of the operations by the heads of our relevant security agencies,” he said. “However, as the operations are ongoing, it is inappropriate to provide further detail at this stage.
“These operations are designed to disrupt and prevent plans to undertake terrorist attacks in Australia.”
Cleveland St remained closed to traffic last night as crime scene officers seized evidence and took photographs as they moved through the house.
They were accompanied by Fire and Rescue NSW officers and members of NSW Police Rescue.
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