Minto terror attack: ‘I think that’s what he was doing, looking for someone to target’

A MINTO woman who met accused terrorist Ihsas Khan hours before he allegedly knifed a man thinks she narrowly avoided being injured herself.

A MINTO woman who met accused terrorist Ihsas Khan hours before he allegedly knifed a man believes she and her husband escaped being injured because they responded “aggressively” to his menacing.

She and her husband were walking along Ohlfsen Rd in southwest Sydney, where the stabbing occurred, on their way to vote in council elections when they saw Khan standing in the exact spot he is alleged to have stabbed Mr Greenhalgh.

“He was walking in front of the reserve and he was glaring at us and we were glaring at him. We said, ‘What the hell are you looking at?’ — my husband was quite aggressive towards him.”

Alison, who didn’t want her surname published, said he kept walking, but was “mumbling incoherently”.

“I think that’s what he was doing, looking for someone to target. I think that’s what probably saved us because we weren’t very submissive to his demeanour.”

In response to the attack, Deputy NSW Commissioner Cath Burn, the state’s most senior counter-terrorism cop, told reporters: “We know that this person has strong extremist beliefs inspired by ISIS ... but what made him act yesterday we don’t know.

“It was deliberate, it was violent, his behaviour could have turned worse as well.”

Alison told news.com.au from near the alleged terror scene on Monday morning it was a troubling encounter made so much worse after what happened later on Saturday.

“He was very menacing, very menacing, the way he looked. Had I known he had machete in his backpack ... I think that’s what he was doing at that time of day ... He was sizing us up but we were sizing him. He looked us up and down and we were quite aggressive in our demeanour back at him.”

CCTV footage captures Wayne Greenhalgh running from his knife-wielding attacker.

A man alleged to be Ihsas Khan chases Mr Greenhalgh.

CCTV footage obtained by A Current Affair shows a bleeding Mr Greenhalgh fleeing into a hairdressing salon for help.

Residents of the street have all said the victim, 59-year-old Mr Greenhalgh, was a regular walking his dog in the community and always stopped to chat or wave.

Alison wondered if that could be why he was attacked. “Maybe that was his downfall, he looked to be a soft target.”

She would not let her small children play on her front lawn again. “That won’t be happening.”

Mr Greenhalgh was listed in a serious but stable condition on Monday afternoon. He had eight hours of surgery to save his life after sustaining wounds to his chest, abdomen, and neck and lost several fingers trying to push the knife away.

He managed to drag himself to the home hairdressing salon of Duyen Phen, who managed to shut the doors to her business as Khan — still holding the knife — tried to get inside.

A salon customer who helped the bleeding Mr Greenhalgh said

She was too upset to speak about the ordeal today and was taken away from the home by friends just before midday.

“She’s like a sister to me,” one neighbour of Ms Phen said, adding she had been a hero for what she’d done to keep Mr Greenhalgh safe.

“I need to get her away from here,” she said of the salon.

Startling images obtained by A Current Affair reveal how the salon filled with blood from Mr Greenhalgh’s wounds while Khan could be seen holding a large knife.

Other residents of Ohlfsen Rd told of their shock at having an alleged terrorist event occur in their neighbourhood. Many fear it will never be the same again.

One woman said she heard the “screaming” and noise of the attack and went outside to look. She told news.com.au she wished she hadn’t — and would now keep her doors locked even during the day.

Minto stabbing attack victim Wayne Greenhalgh

Many had seen Khan before. He was well known in the area, often clutching a Koran and preaching to passers-by, in a white robe.

Adrian Gallford, said he saw Khan the day before the attack standing “like a zombie” in the middle of Ohlfsen Rd.

“He was standing there as I was driving past ... in the middle of the street. As I got close, I had to swerve around him. He was just standing, staring, zombie like.”

They way he stood there, not moving, for the car troubled Mr Gallford.

Police investigating the stabbing had been told about the behaviour in the lead up to Saturday’s incident — and Commissioner Andrew Scipione conceded local police had been told of his behaviour.

“He’d come to the notice of police, local police, and that had been a result of his activities,” Mr Scipione said.

There was no evidence of any calls to the national security hotline.

Victor has lived in the street for more than 20 years. He was used to seeing Khan standing in front of the home he shared with his father, sometimes in robes, other times “in street clothes”.

He was shocked to see it was him on the ground as police swarmed around tasers drawn on Saturday.

The knifeman tried to break in to the hairdressing salon, where his victim had sought refuge.

“It’s devastating really, it’s such quiet spot, to think [we] have teen kids here. They often are throwing a ball round exactly where it happened.”

Victor had known Khan’s mother, who died recently. They’d never spoken but he had seen her more than once in the street, in obvious distress.

It was unnerving to know what police regard as a terror attack unfolded almost at his door.

“At one stage the police wanted everyone to get back. They were unsure what was inside the house, and they actually said, ‘You have to get back.’”

Ms Burn described the incident, a lone-wolf style attack, as “the new face of terrorism”.

“This really highlights the challenges that this is the new face of terrorism. This is the new face of what we’re dealing with,” she said.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull went as far as to link the stabbing with the September 11 attacks — taking place on its 15th anniversary.

He said the events were connected by “violent Islamic ideology” and praised the “heroism” of the bystander who confronted the assailant and kept him at bay while awaiting police.

It was as though authorities finally had an example of the type of apparently random, sudden, almost undetectable attacks they had been thwarting — stopping nine similar IS-motivated strikes — behind closed doors.

The incident on Saturday was in full view of many in broad daylight. Now millions of Australians have been given a graphic illustration of the sort of attacks authorities have been fearful of.

The reaction by government and police, seen by some as extreme, is what experts are calling an insight into the mindset of counter-terror authorities and their constant struggle with this new brand of terror.

Blood stains an Ohlfsen Road residents car after the attack.

Deakin University terrorism expert Greg Barton told news.com.au there were good reasons police and other authorities were being so strong with their warnings.

“Calling this the new face of terrorism is understandable in terms of framing the issue, it highlights the immediate problem that police are struggling with, which is how to be prepared to spot, and stop, somebody who could carry out a lone wolf attack,” he said.

“These aren’t scare tactics, there are a couple of reasons for the warnings.”

Prof Barton said Australians were new to the risk of lone wolf extremist attacks, which before the rise and spread of Islamic State, were associated with American right wing extremism and similar acts in places like Norway.

And after receiving wake up calls like terrorist Numan Haider’s attempted attack of two police officers in Melbourne in September 2014, the Lindt cafe siege later that year, and the daylight murder of police worker Curtis Cheng in Sydney last year, authorities wanted people to be aware of the risks.

NSW Police officers restrain Ihsas Khan after Khan allegedly set upon Minto resident Wayne Greenhalgh with a large hunting knife. Picture supplied

“The person who is best placed to see somebody ticking over into the sort of state of mind towards preparation for such an attack is family and friends, and we’ve had examples. It’s a very real issue that probably police are not going to catch these people without family and friends at least presenting to police and saying they need help and assistance, without that warning, it’s very, very hard, so the warnings about being alert to problematic behaviour is for them,” he said.

While authorities’ instructions following events like these are alarming, they’re also quite confusing. It’s difficult to pinpoint to the public what behaviours they need to look out for, or provide instructions on how to avoid a terror attack.

According to Prof Barton, exacerbated statements like the one Ms Burn delivered following the stabbing, gave a window into the frustration caused to authorities.

“In the past there’s been the attitude among police they don’t want to escalate things, I think what we’re seeing in the recent statement by Catherine Burn is a window into the mind of police at the moment — I think when they say this is the new face of terror, it’s actually an insight into what they’re having to deal with all the time,” he said.

“When it is appropriate to talk about (terror), we see the things that they’re wrestling with. They’re stressed by this and I think we’re seeing that. We’re seeing their anxieties and I think we’re getting a sense of their own vulnerability.”

Deputy Commissioner Catherine Burn talks to media.

Australian National University counter terror expert Clarke Jones was less supportive of authorities’ panicked reactions.

“I am concerned that the fact that the government and the NSW Police assistant commissioner were on the TV concluding that it was a terrorist act and I think we need to be very careful,” he said.

“For the prime minister to get up and link it to 9/11 is just preposterous, is just crazy, how we can get carried away and blow this incident way out of proportion is beyond me.”

Dr Jones said he understood police and government taking the opportunity to issue warnings, but it was important not to lead the public to leap to conclusions.

“People need to be on the lookout for any violent behaviour but we don’t need to link it to terrorism, we don’t need to link it to a particular religious group. All these things contribute to the underlying causes and make these problems worse.”

He warned crediting terror groups with specific attacks contributed to “making the group sound bigger than they are”.

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t take this movement more seriously, we would be stupid not to. We need to play it very carefully and very intelligently and not overreacting to what is basically a serious assault on the street,” he said.

Khan did not seek bail when his case was mentioned at Parramatta Bail Court yesterday and will appear in court again on Wednesday.

[e-mail]