Sydney synagogue targeted in massive bomb plot

“Very serious threat” – Massive bomb hidden in vehicle in Sydney, Australia, found with note suggesting a local synagogue was to have been the target, local police say.

By World Israel News Staff

A recent bomb plot in Australia likely targeted a synagogue in the southeastern city of Sydney, local police revealed Wednesday.

On Sunday, January 19, officers from the New South Wales Police Department were called to a property in Doral, near Sydney, after an abandoned vehicle that had been towed away was found to be carrying a large quantity of explosives.

The caravan had been towed after it was left parked in a dangerous position on a roadside from December 7 to January 19.

Local police and Australian counterterrorism authorities quietly probed the bombing plot without revealing the discovery to the public until the investigation was leaked this week.

At a press conference on Wednesday held by NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns, it was revealed that papers found in the abandoned caravan suggest that the target was a local synagogue. The address of a Sydney Jewish house of worship was found near the explosives.

Hudson said the quantity of explosives found in the vehicle suggests it could have caused an enormous explosion, with a blast zone 40 meters (131 feet) in diameter, “which is a significant amount of damage.”

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The owner of the caravan has been taken into custody, according to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald.

“This is an ongoing investigation and is being taken seriously with all lines of inquiry being pursued,” Hudson said, although “there is no ongoing threat to the community.”

Minns called the bombing plot a “very serious threat” and an act of “terrorism,” and he vowed on Wednesday that those behind it would face the “full force of the law.”

“This is the discovery of a potential mass casualty event. There is only one way of calling it out, and that is terrorism,” he said. “The full resources of the state of New South Wales and NSW Police have been deployed to confront this very serious threat to our community.”

“I want to make it absolutely clear – and I understand community concerns about this story and similar escalating incidents of antisemitic violence in our community – that anyone attempting terrorism, violence, hatred in our community will be met with the full force of the law,” Minns stated.

“There will be absolutely no tolerance under any circumstances for these acts of criminal violence in our community.”

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