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.