‘You’re cockroaches’: Woman confronts people outside home of man arrested over terror plot

In dramatic scenes, a woman screamed at people outside the home of one of the men arrested for allegedly planning a terror attack.

A woman in a burqa furiously confronted people outside the Melbourne home of a man arrested for suspected terrorist offences today, calling them “cockroaches” and blocking entry to the premises with her vehicle.

The angry scenes came after police swooped on three Victorian men, who were caught allegedly preparing an Islamic State-inspired attack. Officers believe the trio intended to open fire on a Melbourne crowd with a semiautomatic rifle, with an intent to “kill as many people as possible”.

Ertunc Eriklioglu, 30, of Dallas, Samed Eriklioglu, 26, of Campbellfield, and Hanifi Halis, 21, of Greenvale, have been charged with planning a terrorist attack and have since faced court.

The trio appeared in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon, each charged with one count of acting in preparation for or in planning of a terrorist act, and were remanded in custody to face court in April for committal mention.

Prosecutors will have to comb through thousand of intercepted phone calls, text messages and almost 8000 hours of listening device material involved in the case against the accused while the three men remain behind bars.

The woman enters a house raided by police in the Melbourne suburb of Dallas. Photo: William West/AFP.

Earlier in the day, a fracas occurred outside the Dallas home of one of the accused brothers, Ertunc Eriklioglu. The woman, dressed in head-to-toe black religious garb, was repeatedly asked to remove her car from the front of the block as it was blocking police, the Daily Mail reported.

The irate resident refused, at one point screaming, “You guys are cockroaches” at the crowd of media outside the house.

Victoria Police, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and other agencies worked together to foil the group’s alleged plans, arresting the men this morning.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the foiled attack proved federal parliament must pass controversial new laws allowing police to access encrypted messaging systems, such as WhatsApp.

“The technology now has got ahead of where the law is and we are finding ourselves in a particular black spot where the police are blind to the telecommunications across these messaging apps,” Mr Dutton told reporters in Sydney.

Father Armagan Eriklioglu speaks to media. Picture: Jason Edwards

Samed and Ertunc’s father Armagan Eriklioglu fronted the media today and said his sons were “good men”.

“They don’t even know how to use a weapon,” Mr Eriklioglu said, according to The Age . “They are very quiet, they’re not wild, they’re not aggressive. We haven’t got no weapons, they (police) couldn’t find anything.

“I wanted to come out here and say it’s not true … I don’t know where they (police) got this information from.

“They don’t like Islamic State.”

All three are Australian citizens of Turkish background and police said their wives and children were home when they were arrested.

Armagan said police, who stormed the Melbourne homes at 3am this morning, said the raid left his house a mess.

“My mum’s bungalow (out the back) was smashed, very messy, the doors are gone,” he said.

“They locked my hands (behind his back) … my wife she didn’t have (a) scarf, they got her as well.”

Samed Eriklioglu, 26, his brother and a third man were charged with planning a terrorist attack. Picture: 9 News

Hanifi Halis, 21, and the Eriklioglu brothers were remanded in custody to face court in April. Picture: 9 News

Victoria Police confirmed today two of the men were brothers and all three of their Australian passports were cancelled earlier this year.

“It’s our view that, while a specific location had not been finalised, there was a view towards a crowded place, a place where maximum people would be attending, to be able to kill, we allege, as maximum an amount of people as possible,” Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told reporters.

“I believe, over more recent days, attempts have been made to source a semiautomatic rifle to assist with the carrying out of that terrorism event.”

Police were seen outside one of the houses today. Picture: David Crosling

Police also executed four warrants in the northwest in Melbourne, searching a property in Coolaroo.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Ian McCartney said the three men were facing life in prison.

“If we had not acted early in preventing this attack, we’ll allege the consequences would have been chilling, with the potential, as the commissioner stated, with a potential significant loss of human life,” he said.

Police outside one of the homes in the north west of Melbourne. Picture: David Crosling

Victoria Police Public Order Response Team vehicles have been patrolling Melbourne’s CBD since the attack. Picture: Scott Barbour

The counter-terrorism team said while a specific location had not been decided on, police gathered enough evidence to be sure the attack would focus on “a place of mass gathering, where there would be crowds”.

Mr Ashton said the inevitable crowds that come to Melbourne for Christmas and New Year were playing on investigators’ minds.

“We’re getting to a busy time of the year as you know with a lot of mass gatherings occurring … as we start to head into Christmas time, there’s places where mass gatherings occur, Christmas parties and that sort of thing,” he said.

“That certainly, no doubt, would have played on the investigators’ minds about locations as well. But we didn’t have … a set location where that was occurring.”

The AFP said 15 terror plots had been “disrupted” since 2014. Four plots foiled plots were described as “major”.

Police allege the most recent attempt to execute a terror attack on Melbourne was “inspired” but not “directed” by IS. The Counter Terrorism Command started investigating the three men in March but they had been “of interest” to intelligence agencies since early 2017.

MEN ALLEGEDLY ‘ENERGISED’ AFTER BOURKE ST ATTACK

The three arrests come a week after a separate terror attack in the Victorian capital.

On the afternoon of November 9, Hassan Khalif Shire Ali pulled up in Bourke Street in a four-wheel drive containing open gas cylinders, in what police said was a failed plan to cause an explosion.

The Somalia-born 30-year-old then stabbed three men, including the popular Italian restaurateur Sisto Malaspina, 74, who died at the scene. The two other victims were released from Royal Melbourne Hospital last week. Ali was shot by police, later dying in hospital.

Counter terror police said the three men had ‘become energised’ after last week’s attack by Hassan Khalif Shire Ali. Picture: Chris Newport

A Tasmanian businessman who was stabbed in the head yesterday said he was lucky to escape alive. Speaking for the first time since the attack, Rod Patterson said he was stabbed after racing over to Ali’s burning ute to see if anyone needed help.

“I was very lucky in so many different phases of this experience. Firstly, that he didn’t come a second time, someone else drew his attention,” Mr Patterson told ABC News.

He was just 10 metres away when Ali went to the footpath and fatally stabbed Mr Malaspina moments later. A state funeral was held on Tuesday for the Melbourne restaurateur, who ran the much-loved Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar for more than 40 years.

“It wasn’t my day to die, and that’s what I’m holding onto,” Mr Patterson said after returning to his home in Launceston. A 24-year-old security guard, who wishes only to be known as Shadi, was also injured in the attack.

Speaking to reporters today, the Joint Counter Terrorism Team said the three men had “become energised” after Ali’s attack.

Police had no proof Ali was planning an attack beforehand.

Mr Dutton pleaded with Australians last week to help close the “black spot” in the country’s ability to detect terror threats in the wake of the Bourke St attack.

“There is a real black spot for us, and that is a vulnerability,” Mr Dutton said, citing comments from ASIO security director-general Duncan Lewis, who said potential terrorists were using encrypted apps so their messages couldn’t be discovered.

“It is even more difficult today than it was five or 10 years ago to try to deal with some of these cases,” added Mr Dutton.

“The police can’t contemplate every circumstance.

“Where you have someone who is buying chemicals, importing or purchasing online different items that might be precursors to make up an explosive device, you would expect there to be intelligence around that activity.

“Where you have someone who picks up a kitchen knife and grabs a couple of gas bottles and drives into the CBD, these are very difficult circumstances to stop.”