Australia police: Christmas Day bomb plot foiled, 5 detained

CANBERRA, Australia -- Police in Australia detained five men suspected of planning a series of Christmas Day attacks using explosives, knives and a gun in the heart of the country's second-largest city, officials said Friday.

The suspects were inspired by the Islamic State group and planned attacks on Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street train station, neighboring Federation Square, a fashionable bar and restaurant precinct and St. Paul's Cathedral, an Anglican church, Victoria state police chief commissioner Graham Ashton said.

He said they had been plotting the attack for three weeks. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said it was one of the most substantial plots that has been disrupted over the last several years.

The arrests came after a truck smashed into a Christmas market in Berlin on Monday, killing 12 people.

Two of seven people initially arrested in raids Thursday night and Friday morning in Melbourne -- a 26-year-old man and a 20-year-old woman -- were released without being charged, police said.

Five men between the ages of 21 and 26 remained in custody.

Three appeared in a Melbourne court, charged with preparing or planning a terrorist attack.

They each face a life sentence if convicted.

Hamza Abbas, 21, Ahmed Mohamed, 24, and Abdullah Chaarani, 26, did not enter pleas or apply for bail. They will appear in court April 28.

Police said the other two detained will be charged with preparing a terrorist attack.

Four of the suspects were born in Australia, and the fifth was Egyptian-born with Egyptian and Australian citizenship.

The suspects were preparing to use explosives, knives and a gun, Ashton said.

Police believed the threat had been neutralized through the raids on five Melbourne premises, he said.

"Islamist terrorism is a global challenge that affects us all. But we must not be cowed by the terrorists," Turnbull said.

"We will continue to go about our lives as we always have. What these criminals seek to do is to kill. But they also seek to frighten us, to cow us into abandoning our Australian way of life," he said.

Since Australia's terrorist threat level was elevated in September 2014, the government said four extremist attacks and 12 plots have been foiled by police.

Australian federal police commissioner Andrew Colvin said the plotters had moved quickly from a plan to develop a capability to attack.

About 400 police officers were involved in the raids.