Airports security defence upgrade

Terror plot thwarted

A THWARTED terrorist conspiracy to bring down a plane in Australia with an improvised device has intensified security screening at the country’s airports.

Four men were arrested as NSW and Australian Federal Police officers swooped on five properties in the Sydney suburbs of Surry Hills, Lakemba, Wiley Park and Punchbowl on Saturday afternoon.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said airport security measures have been increased and reassured the public of their safety.

“The tight co-operation and collaboration between our intelligence and security agencies is the key to keeping Australians safe from terrorism,” he said.

A number of “items of interest” were seized and searches at four of the properties continued yesterday, with AFP Commissioner Andrew Colvin suggesting they may take “many more days”.

But the changes are yet to impact Avalon Airport.

Avalon chief Justin Giddings said he was watching advice from the Office of Transport Security and was ready to make changes should it elevate the risk level for the airport.

The terror plan involved an improvised device and was Islamist-inspired, Mr Colvin said.

“We’ve taken this threat very seriously,” he said.

“You should infer that we think this was credible and there was an intention, and there was quite possibly a capability as well.”

Mr Colvin expressed confidence Australia’s airport security protocols would have prevented the plans coming to fruition.

Despite this, travellers were warned to expect delays and increased scrutiny at all Australian departure points after security measures were “intensified”.

“Some of that will be visible, some of it will not be visible, but it will take more time,” Mr Turnbull said.

The plot was the 13th significant conspiracy to be foiled by Australian authorities since the country’s terror threat level was raised to “probable” in 2014.

Dr John Coyne, who heads the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Border Security Program, called it the most “troubling”.

“It involves a much more co-ordinated group, on face value,” he said.

“They had that level of planning and they obviously had some expectation of achieving success, which indicates they’d identified a vulnerability themselves.”

Mr Colvin said he had no reason to believe the integrity of airport security had been compromised.

No details have been released about the arrested men.