Deadly siege in Melbourne treated as terrorist attack

15:07, 6 June 2017

MELBOURNE. KAZINFORM Australian authorities confirmed Tuesday that they are investigating the siege in an apartment in the city of Melbourne, which resulted in the death of a civilian and the assailant, as a terrorist attack, EFE reports.

"It is a terrorist attack and it underlines the need for us to be constantly vigilant, never to be deterred, always defiant, in the face of Islamist terrorism," Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters.

Police, on Monday night, gunned down an armed man who was holding a woman hostage in an apartment building in the Brighton neighborhood of Melbourne, where they found another dead person who turned out to be a Chinese-Australian employee.

The attacker was identified as Yacqub Khayre, a 29-year-old Somali who had been in prison for a violent robbery in 2012 and had been released on parole since Nov. 2016.

The Somali man had also been linked in the past to plans of an attack on a military base in Sydney in 2009, although he was subsequently acquitted on these charges.

"The threat from terrorism in this country is real," Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said, adding that since the terrorism threat level was raised to "probable" in 2014, five incidents of this kind have been reported.

The Islamic state has claimed responsibility for the attack through its news agency Amaq, although Australian authorities still doubt this, according to national broadcaster ABC.