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A recent bomb plot in Australia likely targeted a synagogue in the southeastern city of Sydney, local police revealed Wednesday.
On Sunday, January 19th, officers from the New South Wales Police Department were called to a property in Doral, near Sydney, after an abandoned vehicle which had been towed away was found to be carrying a large quantity of explosives.
The caravan had been towed after it was left parked in a dangerous position on a roadside from December 7th to January 19th.
Local police and Australian counter-terror authorities quietly probed the bombing plot, without revealing the discovery to the public until the investigation was leaked this week.
At a press conference Wednesday held by NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, it was revealed that papers found in the abandoned caravan suggested that the target was a local synagogue, with the address of a Sydney Jewish house of worship found near the explosives.
Hudson said the quantity of explosives found in the vehicle suggest it could have caused an enormous explosion, with a blast zone 40 meters (131 feet) in diameter, “which is a significant amount of damage.”
One person, the owner of the caravan, has been taken into custody, according to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald, and the investigation is ongoing, Hudson said.
“This is an ongoing investigation and is being taken seriously with all lines of inquiry being pursued,” Hudson said, adding: “There is no ongoing threat to the community.”
Minns called the bombing plot a “very serious threat” and an act of “terrorism,” and vowed Wednesday that those behind it would face the “full force of the law.”
“This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There is only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism.”
“The full resources of the state of New South Wales and NSW Police have been deployed to confront this very serious threat to our community.”
“I want to make it absolutely clear – and I understand community concerns about this story and similar escalating incidents of antisemitic violence in our community – that anyone attempting terrorism, violence, hatred in our community will be met with the full force of the law.”
“There will be absolutely no tolerance under any circumstances for these acts of criminal violence in our community.”
