I’m going to leave our live coverage of the Melbourne terror attack there for the moment. In the meantime, Guardian Australia reporters across the country have filed these stories to bring you up to speed with today’s events:
- Melissa Davey has this wrap of the comments of Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, and state police chief commissioner, Graham Ashton
- Ben Doherty has explored the violent past of gunman Yacqub Khayre
- Paul Karp was in Canberra to hear the Malcolm Turnbull’s calls for parole reform
Vision from the press conferences in Canberra and Melbourne is also available here.
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Reports are emerging of the evacuation of a Virgin plane at Albury airport today. The circumstances of the evacuation remain unclear, but passengers were told to run from the plane as soon as it landed.
AAP has filed this story:
Passengers on a Virgin flight from Sydney to Albury have jumped from the plane on to the tarmac after being told by cabin crew to “get out and run, run, run” as soon as the plane landed.
A passenger on the 8.05am flight told AAP that passengers were urgently evacuated as soon as the plane landed at Albury airport on Tuesday morning.
The doors of the plane were “ripped off” from the outside by authorities and passengers were told to leave their luggage and jump about 1.2 metres from the front exit on to the tarmac.
A man who was a passenger on the 68-seater turboprop was arrested on the tarmac and taken away by police.
NSW Police confirmed there had been an incident at the airport.
“As soon as we landed the cabin crew started yelling ‘Get out, run, run, run’,” the passenger told AAP.
He said the passengers were assembled on the tarmac and police then arrested a man wearing a red jacket and red hat.
“The man didn’t seem to resist the arrest.”
Police asked the passengers if anyone had any issues with the man and spoke to the people who had been seated near him.
The arrested passenger was said to be calm throughout the flight and got up and went to the bathroom once.
Michelle McNamara, who works for a car hire company in the airport terminal, said plainclothes police, uniformed officers, firefighters and ambulance crews closed off half the terminal during the operation.
“It’s normally quiet, it’s Albury airport,” she told AAP.
“It’s a bit concerning. With all that’s happening in the world, it makes you think the worst.”
Virgin has been contacted for comment.
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Another colleague, Paul Karp, has been in Canberra listening to the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, speak about the attack. Turnbull has demanded to know why Khayre was released on parole in November, given his violent history, poor behaviour, and past links with terrorism. The language used by Turnbull is worth noting.
Turnbull’s description of the attack as “Islamist terrorism” follows a push by conservatives including Tony Abbott, One Nation and the Australian Conservatives that Islam should be explicitly blamed for terrorist attacks by fundamentalist extremists.
You can read the full story here.
AAP have been at the scene of Khayre’s home in Roxburgh Park, where he lived with his mother. The street has been blocked off and police have set up tents as they search his home.
Dozens of police are milling around the Roxburgh Park house, removing bags of evidence.
Neighbour Icy Agustsson said the family mostly kept to themselves and he had no idea Khayre was a terror suspect.
“I don’t talk to them much, people keep to themselves in this area,” Agustsson told reporters.
“But it doesn’t worry me, you get used to it and see it on TV. (Police) have to do their job.”
Khayre had been acquitted of charges over a 2009 plot to attack Holsworthy army base in western Sydney.
“You don’t get shocked in this area. But no I had no idea (he’d been on terror charges),” Agustsson said.
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My colleague, Ben Doherty, has delved into Khayre’s violent and criminal past. In one of his many court appearances, Justice George Hampel warned that Khayre had “gloomy prospects” for rehabilitation.
In sentencing Khayre for a drug-affected violent home invasion in 2012 – during which he was on parole when he committed Monday’s attack – Justice Hampel said:
“There is a real risk you will become even more isolated than you are now, institutionalised, and at increasingly high risk of reoffending.
“You are now isolated from your family and community. There was no family at court to support you.”
You can read the full story here.
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What we know so far
Investigations into the motivations of gunman Yacqub Khayre are still ongoing. Police are at his Roxburgh Park home, where he lived with his mother, and remain at the scene of the attack in Brighton. Here’s what’s known so far:
- Yacqub Khayre, 29, lured a woman to serviced apartments in Melbourne’s bayside suburb of Brighton, where he also shot a Chinese-born Australian man who was working for the complex.
- Police arrived at the scene, and Khayre emerged from the apartments with a sawn-off shotgun, firing at officers and injuring three.
- Khayre was shot dead.
- The woman was not injured, but is highly traumatised, according to police
- A man believed to be Khayre called Channel Seven and told them ‘this is for IS, this is for al-Qaida’.
- Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the attack, but police have cautioned against placing too much faith in the terror group’s statement. Khayre’s invoking of the names of both Isis and al-Qaida – rival groups – has raised scepticism about the level of their involvement.
- Khayre was charged but acquitted with a 2009 terrorist plot targeting Holsworthy barracks in NSW. That plot was linked with Somali jihadist group, al-Shabaab, and prosecutors alleged Khayre travelled to Somalia seeking a fatwa.
- Police say there is so far no evidence that Khayre was acting with others in the Melbourne attack.
- He was out on parole for other violent offences at the time of the attack, and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has demanded to know why. Victorian premier Daniel Andrews has maintained the state has the toughest parole review system in the country.
- Turnbull has flagged he will push for changes to parole and bail laws at Coag.
- Khayre had a long and violent criminal history. He was in jail until November last year, when he was released on parole. His time in custody had been extended after he committed further crimes behind bars.
- Khayre has been known to counter-terrorism investigators since 2009, but Victorian police say there was nothing to suggest he was a heightened risk at the time of the attack. It is unclear whether it was planned or spontaneous, police say.
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Some more pictures are emerging from the scene on Bay Street in Melbourne this morning.
The Prime Minister responds to the terror attack in Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/NiF185cDuV
— The PMO (@thepmo) June 6, 2017
Police were still at the scene of the siege at the Buckingham serviced apartments on Bay Street in Brighton this morning. They sent devices to detect explosives down the driveway alongside the complex.
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A Victorian supreme court sentencing from 2011 linked the Holsworthy army barracks terrorist plot to al-Shabaab, a Somali jihadist group that has pledged support to al-Qaida.
Khayre was acquitted of that plot, and was not sentenced. But the sentencing remarks refer to a trip he took to Somalia. Prosecutors alleged he did so for the purposes of obtaining a fatwa from Muslim clerics.
“The activity undertaken by Khayre , of leaving Melbourne, going to Somalia, the crown allege, that he was in fact going there to seek a fatwa,” Justice Betty King said.
“He was to seek it personally, by his presence in Somalia. The jury found that Khayre was not guilty, in respect of this offence, and accordingly I will not act upon the basis that he was any part of the conspiracy, or that his actions formed any part of the conspiracy.”
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The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, has just issued a statement condemning the attack.
“We have been suddenly and viciously reminded that Australians are not immune from terrorist attacks, both at home and abroad,” he said. “On behalf of the federal opposition, I offer my condolences to the family of the innocent man murdered yesterday.”
Shorten praised the police response and wished the injured officers a speedy recovery. He said Australia needed to heed any lessons from the attack, raising the issue of tougher bail laws. Khayre was on parole, not bail.
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The former prime minister Tony Abbott has been on 2GB radio this morning discussing counter-terrorism strategies. He has called for further efforts to destroy the Islamic State caliphate.
“The first step is to redouble our efforts to crush the so-called caliphate in the Middle East,” Abbott said.
“The second step is to redouble our efforts to ensure no returning jihadists are loose on our streets and the third step is to take much more vigorous measures to close down these centres of hate preaching.”
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These are images of the gunman Yacqub Khayre. He is pictured here in 2010, leaving court in Melbourne.
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The press conference has now ended. In one of the final questions, the prime minister is asked to provide a clear and concise definition of terrorism, as opposed to an “act of violence”.
He responds:
An act of terrorism is politically – in a nutshell, is politically motivated violence. But, in this case, the offender made it – stated that he was doing this on behalf of Isil and al-Qaida.
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Malcolm Turnbull said the terrorism threat level, currently at “probable”, was under constant review but had not changed.
“The advice that we have from the Victoria police, and that is confirmed by the commissioner … this act, this terrorist attack, the understanding it is not part of a coordinated attack, there were not others involved,” Turnbull said.
Michael Phelan said that to raise it to the next level, “very specific intelligence” of a planned attack was needed.
“We do not have that intelligence,” he said. “At the moment, there is no suggestion this matter will expand further.
“Having said that, we must be careful. There are search warrants at the person’s residence. The crime scene is secured. We have the electronic data of the person in interest.”
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Phelan said joint counter-terrorism taskforces around the country were now engaged in 70 operations across Australia. He said 200 individuals were being looked at closely, in addition to an “outer ring” who had come to the attention of authorities.
“We are constantly putting people under review, depending on the intelligence that comes through, ongoing investigations,” he said.
“It is not a stagnant process that does not move – people move in and out of the rings.”
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The Australian federal police acting commissioner, Michael Phelan, said the attack underlined the very real terrorist threat in Australia. He said that, since the terrorism threat level was raised to probable in 2014, authorities had disrupted 12 planned attacks. There had been five counter-terrorism incidents since that time, Phelan said.
“The events of yesterday do demonstrate the threat of terror is real in this country,” he said.
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Turnbull said problems with parole must be addressed as a matter of high priority. The prime minster said he will raise the issue with premiers and chief ministers at the next Council of Australian Governments meeting.
“There have been too many cases of people on parole committing violent offences of this kind,” Turnbull said.
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Turnbull said there were “very grave” questions that must be answered after the attack. He questioned why Khayre had been released on parole, given his extensive criminal history and links with terrorism.
“I have raised these today with the Victorian premier, whom I called last night and I called again this morning,” Turnbull said.
“How was this man on parole? He had a long record of violence. A very long record of violence. He had been charged with a terrorist offence some years ago and had been acquitted.
“He was known to have connections, at least in the past, with violent extremism. But he was a known violent offender, how was he on parole?”
Updated
Turnbull condemns attack as 'a shocking, cowardly crime'
The prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is speaking to the media about the attack now. He has described the attack as shocking and cowardly.
“It is a terrorist attack and it underlines the need for us to be constantly vigilant, never to be deterred, always defiant, in the face of Islamist terrorism,” Turnbull said.
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Last night the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, was quick to respond to the Brighton incident, labelling the gunman a terrorist and calling for police to be empowered to “turn terror watch lists into TERROR STOP LISTS”.
Seems the #Brighton terrorist was known to police. We must empower the police & turn terror watch lists into TERROR STOP LISTS! -PH #auspol
— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) June 5, 2017
Later, she retweeted the Herald Sun’s front page identifying the gunman as Yacqub Khayre:
Exclusive: The #brighton gunman was Yacqub Khayre, once accused of taking part in an Islamic terror plot to attack an Australian army base pic.twitter.com/EFfxdVEoS9
— Paul Tatnell (@PaulTatnell) June 5, 2017
Hanson has been highly active on social media using the Manchester attacks to push her policies. As my colleague Gabrielle Chan reported, Hanson used a London police message – designed to keep residents safe as the attacks were unfolding – to create a meme to end Islamic immigration in Australia.
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Barnaby Joyce urges Australians to take attack 'in our stride'
The deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has called on Australians to “make sure we take this in our stride” in relation to the Melbourne attack.
“As hard as it is to say that, [we should] continue on with the people who we are … who love the freedom that we have and whose greatest protection is our own observations and intelligence on issues that are happening around us.”
Asked about the attacker being known to police, Joyce said the issue would be investigated to determine “why this person was in the position he was” including “why he had the freedom of access that he had”.
Joyce said it would be “impossible” to “lock up every suspect in the nation” so the justice system had to determine “who is the greatest risk and who is the lesser risk.
“If we have to further investigate that, we will.”
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Police and state government press conference
Just wrapping up what we know following that media conference:
- Gunman Yacqub Khayre, an Australian national, was shot dead by police after emerging from the Brighton apartment complex with a sawn-off shotgun.
- Khayre had lured a woman to the complex using an escort service, before taking her hostage. She is traumatised but uninjured.
- The man he killed was working at the serviced apartments and appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
- Khayre was on parole at the time of the attack and was jailed for an armed robbery. His time in custody was extended for poor behaviour in prison.
- Police say he was compliant with his parole conditions and there was nothing that presented him as a major concern to intelligence officers.
- Khayre was acquitted of involvement in a terrorist plot targeting the Holsworthy army barracks in 2009.
- Police don’t know whether Monday’s attack was planned or spontaneous but say there is nothing to suggest Khayre was working with others
- They have cast doubt on claims of responsibility from Islamic State. Khayre stated that he was acting on behalf of both Isis and al-Qaida, groups that are rivals.
- Khayre arrived in Australia from Somalia as a young child
- A search warrant is being executed at Khayre’s Roxburgh Park home, where he lived with his mother.
Updated
The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is already fielding questions about the state’s parole system. Khayre was out on parole from November last year. But Andrews said Victoria’s parole system is the toughest in Australia. He said Khayre was not in prison for terrorist offences. Andrews also noted that Khayre’s parole had been pushed back owing to “terrible behaviour” inside prison.
“The important thing to note is that not only was he eligible and received parole but it would appear on advice to this point that he’d been compliant with the terms and conditions of the parole granted to him,” Andrews said.
“We’ll look at that very closely, of course, and if there are any changes in any element of this act, which we’re considering as an act of terror, then we stand ready to make them.”
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Ashton said there was nothing to suggest that the attack was linked to acts of terrorism in Manchester and London. He said police would investigate whether Khayre’s ideology was “fired up from last week” but said it was too early to reach any definitive conclusion.
He said Khayre had come to Australia from Somalia as part of a “refugee situation” when he was a child.
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Khayre was an Australian national, Ashton says, and came to the country as a young child. After his acquittal for the alleged Holsworthy army barracks terrorist plot, there was nothing that made him a major concern to intelligence officers.
“It’s more general criminal offending he’s been involved with,” Ashton said. “So there really wasn’t anything sitting there in recent times that suggested he was about to do this from an intel point of view.
“But, of course he’s known to us as having that background. That would be seven years ago now.”
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Ashton said the woman was left in the apartment when Khayre burst out and began shooting at officers. Police knew exactly where Khayre was when he began firing at them, Ashton said.
“She was in the apartment and fortunately she is safe today,” he said. “She was in the apartment at the time and he didn’t harm her in the apartment.”
Something was yelled by Khayre when he burst out of the apartments, Ashton said, but police were still trying to piece their information together.
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Police say it is a “possibility” that Khayre was attempting to lure police to the scene to ambush them. Khayre had used an escort service to bring a woman to the Brighton apartments, before himself arriving with a firearm, Ashton said.
“Now, it’s early days,” he said. “There’s search warrants being done. We’ve got computers and electronic items seized to go through.
“If anything emerges, we’ll probably know, but at this stage it’s just too early to know, you know, how random this was in terms of whether it was something that he was planning or thinking about, whether police were the target or he’s seized the opportunity he thought was presented to him last evening.”
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Ashton said police had noted that Islamic State had claimed responsibility. But he again expressed caution about making any conclusions based on that claim alone. He noted that Khayre had claimed he was acting on behalf of both Isis and al-Qaida, groups that are bitter rivals.
“We’re aware of, online, [Isis] having claimed responsibility but then they always tend to jump up and claim responsibility every time something happens,” Ashton said. “So we note that that has happened but he’s also made statements last night around al-Qaida.
“We believe that he has made a call to Channel Seven making those sorts of comments as well.”
Updated
Khayre was behind bars last year for reckless intent to cause injury, Ashton said. He had also committed arson while in the corrections system.
Ashton said counter-terrorism investigators were trying to work out Khayre’s motives. He said a search warrant had been executed at his Roxburgh Park address. Khayre lived there with his mother, Ashton said.
Ashton said police have no information to suggest Khayre was acting with others.
“There is nothing that we’ve found thus far that would suggest to us that this was anything that was planned or done in concert with others,” Ashton said.
“We believe at this stage from the information we have that he was acting alone and there isn’t a sort of ongoing threat in relation to any plot or anything around this individual.”
Victoria’s police chief, Graham Ashton, speaks to the media
Victoria’s police commissioner, Graham Ashton, is addressing the media right now. He said the man killed in the siege was a worker at the serviced apartments. It sounds, tragically, as though he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“When he – we now know that when he arrived at the scene, he shot the attendant, who was working about in the foyer of those serviced apartments,” Ashton said. “He was fatally shot by the offender, we allege, at the time he’s arrived at the scene and then has taken up his position inside the apartment.”
Ashton has confirmed that Khayre was on parole at the time of the attack. He had been released from prison in November last year.
“The Department of Corrections, we’re liaising with today, going into the parole background, but the early advice from the Department of Corrections is that he was compliant with parole and hadn’t presented any issues [in relation] to misconduct whilst on parole leading up to yesterday,” Ashton said.
Updated
Stay with us as we monitor developments in the wake of the terrorism-linked siege in Melbourne overnight. The attack left two men dead, including the gunman, and injured three police officers.
Police have named Yacqub Khayre, a man previously charged with a terrorist plot targeting the Holsworthy army barracks, as the gunman. Police and the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, are due to give further details this morning.
Here’s the full report before the media briefing:
Updated
