Federal and state police are investigating a caravan filled with explosives discovered in north-west Sydney earlier this month.
Multiple news sources report a note found inside the caravan contained a list of addresses of Jewish people and synagogues.
Premier Chris Minns has labelled the incident “terrorism,” and the Prime Minister and senior federal ministers will be briefed later today.
Meanwhile, at least three locations in Sydney’s east were defaced with antisemitic graffiti overnight, including a Jewish primary school.
Caravan
On Wednesday, NSW police announced a caravan filled with explosives had been found in Dural, a suburb in Sydney’s outer north-west.
After a local resident saw the caravan parked in a “hazardous position,” they moved it to their property on 19 January. When the resident found explosives inside, they called police. The bombs are believed to have been obtained from a mining site.
Police say they are capable of blasts of up to 40 metres in diameter, whichsaid could have caused a “mass casualty” event.
Police are investigating whether the explosives-laden caravan was going to be used in a targeted antisemitic attack in Sydney.
On Wednesday, The Daily Telegraph cited a police source who said a note found inside the caravan had the addresses of Jewish people and a synagogue.
Police have not publicly verified this report and the name of the synagogue has not been published.
Minns said he believed those behind the alleged planned attack were “bad people” with “bad ideologies, bad morals, bad ethics”.
Investigation
The owner of the van is already in custody over unrelated charges.
Deputy Police Commissioner David Hudson said arrests had been made “on the periphery” of the investigation.
Hudson said more than 100 officers are part of the investigation, including counter-terrorism officers, national security agents from ASIO, and police from.
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Today, Police Commissioner Karen Webb claimed some information being made public had “compromised” part of the investigation.
Webb said it “has been detrimental to some of the strategies we may have used.”
Police have not yet officially declared the event a terrorist incident. In NSW, once an incident is classified as terrorism, police have the power to search, within a certain area and number of days.
However, Minns described the incident as “terrorism,” which the Prime Minister told ABC radio he agreed with.
“It’s clearly designed to harm people, but it’s also designed to create fear in the community,” Albanese said.
Graffiti
Overnight, antisemitic graffiti was discovered in three parts of Sydney’s east: Maroubra, Eastgardens, and Eastlakes.
In Maroubra, antisemitic graffiti was sprayed on a Jewish primary school, Mount Sinai College, which begins classes for the year this week.
The school is near a childcare centre that was firebombed last week.
Minns condemned the “bastards” who he said would “rip apart a school on one of the first days of school with a racist antisemitic attack.”
Community response
Executive Council of Australian Jewry Co-CEO Peter Wertheim told reporters the Jewish community was filled with “understandable concern and anxiety” and “increasingly… anger”.
Jewish politicians from both maor parties have condemned the alleged plot.
, whose electorate covers Dural, said he was “deeply disturbed” by the reports.
called the threat “extremely frightening”.
