Here’s what we know so far about the caravan of explosives found in Dural:
Police say a caravan was parked in a hazardous position on a Dural road from 7 December to the 19 January.
Police say they were contacted on 19 January after an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in “some form of antisemitic attack” were discovered in the caravan.
Police say a list of location targets used by the Jewish community was found in the caravan. The Jewish community has been made aware of those.
Chris Minns says a “massive” response has been mobilised to investigate the incident, comprising the New South Wales police, the Australian federal police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and the New South Wales Crime Commission.
100 counter-terrorism officers are involved, as well as scores of officers from operations Pearl and Shelter.
Police say the van is believed to have contained enough explosives to create a 40-metre blast zone. The explosive is power gel, possibly from a mining site.
Police say arrests have been made “on the periphery” of the incident.
Police say the matter is not yet being treated as a terrorist incident.
The incident may affect Australia’s terrorism threat level. Up until now, “there’s been no significant threat of harm to an individual, but this has changed”, says the head of the investigation, deputy police commissioner, David Hudson.
There is no ongoing threat to the community in relation to the caravan, police say.
Members of the public are encouraged “to be vigilant in relation to what they see and what they hear in relation to antisemitism,” says Hudson.
“This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event,” the premier says. “There’s only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism. That’s what we’re very worried about. This would strike terror into the community, particularly the Jewish community, and it must be met with the full resources of the government.”
Minns adds that “it’s with great regret that I can’t make that guarantee” that there will not be an escalation of violence and attacks on the Jewish community. “There’s bad actors in our community, badly motivated, bad ideologies, bad morals, bad ethics, bad people.”
ringing the press conference to a close, the premier, Chris Minns, says:
This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There’s only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism. That’s what we’re very worried about.
This would strike terror into the community, particularly the Jewish community, and it must be met with the full resources of the government.
Premier Chris Minns speaks to media this afternoon. Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP
The deputy commissioner David Hudson says that the explosive was power gel, possibly obtained from a mining site.
Also in the caravan was a list of potential targets from within the Jewish community, he says. He adds that it is not appropriate to nominate the targets.
I can indicate that … the Jewish community will be made aware of those, and have been.
He could not say when those targets had been notified of the threat:
I don’t want to really disclose our communication pathways to that community, but we are constantly in communication with the Jewish community, and have been since, since last October, when these incidents escalated, and certainly since October the seventh, when we saw what happened at the Opera House.
Deputy police commissioner David Hudson speaks to media as Premier Chris Minns looks on. Photograph: Steven Saphore/AAP
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