Barcelona terror: Turnbull to unveil anti-vehicle attack strategy

Malcolm Turnbull is set to unveil a plan to secure high-risk pedestrian areas from rogue vehicle attacks.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull yesterday.

Malcolm Turnbull is set to unveil a plan to secure high-risk pedestrian areas from rogue vehicle attacks such as that committed in Barce­lona and other major European centres.

In an acknowledgment that police and governments won’t be able to secure every area, businesses, councils and private operators will be co-opted into the new counter-terrorism measure.

They will be given do-it-yourself toolkits to protect themselves against so-called “hostile vehicle’’ attacks.

Nice, Berlin, London and now Spain have been rocked by vehicle attacks in past months and police believe this mode of terrorism represents the most serious form of attack confronting Australians.

A counter-terrorism strategy document, expected to be released tomorrow, will provide the most comprehensive advice yet on how businesses can mitigate against the threat of terrorist attack.

The release of the document, the subject of ongoing collaboration between the federal government and the states, as well as representatives from the private sector, comes after Islamic State-­inspired terrorists killed 14 people and wounded about 100 in co-­ordinated vehicle attacks across Spain. Using a medium-sized van, the terrorists mowed down pedestrians in Barcelona’s Los Ramblas thoroughfare. A second attack in Cambrils, south of Barcelona, saw five ­attackers killed by police and six civilians and one police officer wounded.

Both attacks borrowed what has become a familiar modus ­operandi for Islamic State terrorists, which Australian authorities privately expect to see replicated here.

In Nice, 86 people were killed in a similar attack on the Promenade de Anglais. In Berlin, 12 were killed after extremists drove a vehicle into a market and in June seven people were killed when ISIS-­inspired extremists drove across London Bridge before ploughing into Borough Market and embarking on a stabbing frenzy.

Tomorrow’s strategy document has been prepared by the Australian New Zealand Counter Terrorism Committee at the ­request of the Prime Minister.

It rests on the assumption that not every public space can be protected and the burden for defending the public must be shared between police, local councils, state governments and private ­operators. It guides businesses as well as councils and the operators of private spaces, such as sports grounds, on how to assess their risk to hostile vehicle attack.

It offers basic advice on how to counter such assaults, such as by installing bollards or reconfiguring the line of approach to a venue by installing chicanes or angled approaches that prevent vehicles from gaining speed.

The document will be public and for that reason police have been reluctant to offer too much specific advice on how to prevent hostile attacks, lest extremists use the information to defeat whatever counter measures are put in place.

Instead, police can be called upon to offer more detailed advice privately.

Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther said police were pursuing closer contacts with the private sector and government agencies in a bid to minimise terrorism attacks, implementing “baseline standards” for dealing with threats in crowded places.

Mr Guenther, who is in charge of Counter Terrorism Command, said al-Qa’ida and ISIS were using encrypted messaging to limit ­detection and were varying their methods of attacks, making the ­response more complex.

The crowded-places strategy would cover everything from shopping centres to sports grounds, malls and city streets, and it was important all groups with direct interests became aware of the challenges the community faced.

Victoria’s crowded-places ­security advisory group had alread­y met universities, the Departme­nt of Education, Crown casino, and public transport offic­ials to ­ensure that there were “baseline standards” upon which the groups could operate.

“If you look at threat methodology over the last couple of years, there’s still a lot of variations in that,’’ Mr Guenther said.

“Al-Qa’ida and ISIL (are) using encrypted messaging for different ways of committing terror acts … that is why the strategy (crowded places) is so important.’’

He warned that a combined, cross agency/private sector response was needed because there was only so much that one group could do. “What the strategy does is get everyone attuned to the fact that public and private partners have to come together and work out how we can best actually protect these places. You’ve got to ­acknowledge that you can’t do that 100 per cent of the time.’’