[ad_1]
An attacker armed with a knife, who killed one person and injured two others before being shot by police in the second largest city of Australia, had links with the state. Islamic and this aggression is treated as a terrorist attack, announced the authorities.
The suspect, who died at the hospital shortly after the Melbourne assault on Friday, was identified by police as Hassan Khalif Shire Ali. Police said he and his relatives were previously known to the authorities. Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton, who heads the state police in Melbourne, said the man had arrived in Australia several decades ago and he did not dispute the reporter's assertion at a press conference that he was from Somalia.
Authorities announced on Saturday that Shire Ali's passport had been canceled in 2015, when he was planning to visit Syria, where Islamic State militants until recently controlled large numbers of Muslims. of the country in an alleged caliphate. Shire Ali had radical views but it was determined that he did not pose a threat to national security, the authorities said.
The attack is a test of reality, said Ian McCartney, acting deputy commissioner for national security at the Australian Federal Police. "Even with the fall of the caliphate in the conflict zone, the threat remains real."
McCartney said the attacker was inspired and radicalized by the Islamic State. The police also said it was executing search warrants at two addresses in the suburbs of Melbourne on Saturday morning.
The attack began shortly after 4 pm, when the man parked a vehicle in a busy downtown shopping area. A fire broke out in the vehicle and Mr. Ashton stated that the assailant had "engaged" with passersby before the police arrived about a minute later.
Images published by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. showed a man who was splitting and cutting policemen with a knife, while a vehicle was on fire nearby. Mr. Ashton said that the firefighters later discovered that there were gas cans in the vehicle. Some witnesses said they heard two explosions from the vehicle, a van, according to the video of the scene.
Vehicles have been used during terrorist attacks in recent years, including Barcelona, London, New York and Nice, France. Melbourne has recently installed barriers to protect sidewalks from potential attacks.
An image from a video shows a man who allegedly attacked several people in Melbourne.
Photo:
str / epa-efe / rex / Shutterstock
The assault broke what is normally a festive time in Melbourne, which hosted Tuesday the Melbourne Cup, a horse race so popular that a holiday is celebrated in the city the same day it held. The city was also preparing for Christmas.
Charmaine Pisevski, 20, was shopping with her mother in a store when customers heard an explosion. When they were evacuated to the street, Ms. Pisevski stated that they were about 20 feet from the vehicle, which was engulfed by the flames. She saw a man swinging against the police, acting erratically and screaming.
The man "did not seem to be in the right state of mind," she said. "I could not understand what he was saying. You had the fire on. Everyone was panicking.
Ms. Pisevski finally heard two shots. Police said that the man, whose record included offenses related to cannabis use, theft and driving, was shot in the chest.
Melbourne has recently been affected by other acts of violence. Last December, an Afghan-born Australian transported a car in a crowd, killing more than a dozen people; one victim died later. This took place a few steps from where Friday's events took place. Police at the time said that it was unlikely that the December incident was linked to terrorism.
In January 2017, another man drove a car in downtown Melbourne and killed six people. The CBA reported that the man was considered to be suffering from drug-induced psychosis and that the attack was unrelated to terrorism. He is on trial this week.
Write to Mike Cherney at [email protected]
