ISIS sympathiser detained for planning terror plot during the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Australia

Police in Australia have arrested a 20-year-old man suspected of planning a mass shooting on New Year’s Eve in the name of ISIS.

Victoria state police said on Tuesday that the man was acting alone and had not been able to acquire a firearm before his arrest in Melbourne.

Victoria Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Patton said the man, an Australian citizen with Somalian parents, had been monitored by authorities since the beginning of the year.

“He’s accessed documents produced by al-Qaeda Arabian Peninsula which is a guide book in respect to how to commit a terrorist act and also how to use firearms, guns and handguns and rifles,” Patton said at a press conference in Melbourne.

“We are alleging that … he is a sympathiser of ISIS.”

The man had planned to shoot as many people as possible at Melbourne’s Federation Square, which swells with crowds on New Year’s Eve as the focus of the city’s celebrations, Patton said.

Source: ANI