Terror accused allegedly caught with knife after assaulting bottle-shop worker

The teen charged with planning a terrorist act following anti-terror raids earlier this week was arrested by police and allegedly found with a knife after assaulting a man working in a bottle shop.

Two of the teens questioned in this weeks terror raids - and one charged with a serious terror offence - seen in CCTV of an incident allegedly throwing stones at an employee at a drive-through bottle shop.

A 16-year-old boy charged with planning a terrorist act following dramatic anti-terror raids earlier this week was arrested by police on Monday and allegedly found with a knife after assaulting an Indian man working in a drive-through bottle shop.

Extraordinary footage of the boy and his friend – who was questioned but released by police after the terror raids – has emerged showing the duo allegedly assaulting the bottle shop worker with rocks before one of them throws a plank of wood, narrowly missing the worker.

The footage is the first to be released of any of the five teenagers charged and others – including two adults – who have been questioned following a series of counter-­terrorism raids across 13 premises on Wednesday.

Police will allege in court the boys launched their attack after being asked to leave the bottle shop due to their age.

When confronted by police, they ran off but were arrested ­nearby, both allegedly in possession of knives.

The 15 and 16-year-old boys were each charged with common assault, custody of knife in public place and armed with intent to commit indictable office, and were granted bail at a children’s court on Tuesday.

The Weekend Australian understands police are now conducting further investigations into the boys over separate matters to determine whether other offending was driven by hate.

The father of a 15-year-old questioned by police is currently in prison for fighting with al-Qa’ida groups in Syria, which his son has gloated to his friends about.

Families of the boys, many who come from middle class southwestern Sydney homes – some with luxury SUVs in the driveways – say they are struggling to understand how their children have become the subject of such serious allegations, with their homes raided by heavily armed police officers.

Police allege those before the court – including three on the terrorism charge of planning for terrorist acts and two on possessing/controlling violent extremist material – hold “religiously motivated violent extremist ideology”.

“They could be gloating,” one parent told The Australian.

“Boys, they think things like this is fun, but I’m sure he knows now it’s not fun with the way the police are treating him and how ASIO officers took him out of the house, now he knows it’s serious stuff.”

When asked whether their son had been radicalised, they said: “I don’t think so. I think he just tried to act cool because you know how teenagers want to be strong. That’s what I think he was doing. I’m strong, I’m not scared of anything. He doesn’t even pray.”

Parents are still cleaning up their homes after being turned upside down, with sniffer dogs brought in to search for explosives and SIM cards, and electronic devices being seized.

“I always told my son ‘you’ll meet your match one day, you gotta be careful what you say, what you do with people’,” the parent said. “Hanging around the wrong crowd doesn’t help his ego”.

Other parents in southwest Sydney now live in fear that their own children are communicating in other similar groups and worry police could come knocking on their doors.

“I believe parents should be more alert about what their children (are) watching, what they’re doing with their phone at night,” one parent, not linked to the terror-accused, said.