Australia airport security stays heighted over terror plot

CANBERRA, Australia Security remained heightened in airports around Australia on Monday with more intense screening of luggage after law enforcement officials said they had thwarted a plan to bring down an airliner.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton declined to comment on newspaper reports that Islamist extremists planned to kill the occupants of a plane with poison gas and that a homemade bomb was to be disguised as a kitchen mincer. “Police will allege they had the intent and were developing the capability,” Turnbull told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Turnbull announced on Sunday that “a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane” had been disrupted, but revealed few details.

Four men arrested in raids in Sydney late Saturday — two Lebanese-Australian fathers and their sons — had yet to be charged by Monday.

The government will not comment on media reports that the suspects were not previously known to Australian security officials and that their arrests followed a tip from a foreign intelligence agency.

“Australians can be assured that we have very fine intelligence services and we moved extremely quickly on this one and, as you can see, with the right outcomes,”” Turnbull said.

The Australian newspaper cited multiple anonymous sources saying that the plotters were constructing a “non-traditional” explosive device that could have emitted a toxic, sulfur-based gas to kill or immobilize everyone on the aircraft.