Sydney teen's arrest on terror charge before Anzac Day "chilling", says Oz minister

Australia's Minister for Justice and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Counter Terrorism Michael Keenan on Monday described the arrest of a 16-year-old teenager in Sydney hours before the annual Anzac memorial services as a "truly chilling and disturbing scenario".

"Many Australians woke to learn a 16 year old boy from Sydney was facing charges relating to the planning and preparation of a terrorist attack today on Anzac Day. This is a truly chilling and disturbing scenario, and is a sad reflection of the current terror threat landscape in Australia," Keenan said in an official statement in Canberra.

Australian counter-terrorism authorities arrested a 16-year-old teenager at his western Sydney home late Sunday, just hours before people gathered to commemorate the nation's fallen servicemen and women on the anniversary of the World War I landings in Gallipoli in Turkey, known as the Anzac Day.

 

The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC) reported that the matter was heard in a Children's Court on Monday morning, and the boy did not apply for bail.

The teenager was allegedly trying to obtain a gun to carry out an Anzac Day terror plot, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. This is the second arrest relating to alleged terror attack at Anzac Day, a day when Australians "recognize the values forged in the past that underpin our future", said Keenan.

Five teenagers were arrested in Melbourne, along with a 14-year- old boy in Britain, for allegedly planning a terror attack at similar events last year.