Five men ‘headed for Bondi’ detained by heavily armed police on busy Liverpool street in Sydney
LIAM MENDES and LACHLAN LEEMINGLoaded: 1.16%
Heavily armed police detain five men at George Street, Liverpool
Heavily armed police detain five men at George Street, Liverpool
Gift this article
8 Comments
37 minutes ago.
Updated less than a minute ago
A group of men reportedly on their way to Bondi Beach from Melbourne has been detained by heavily armed police in a dramatic traffic stop on a busy street in Sydney’s west.
NSW police were tipped off that the men were driving to Bondi Beach and they were intercepted in Liverpool, according to Sky News.
Video from the scene on Liverpool’s George Street on Thursday shows tactical police toting rifles and wearing green camouflage uniforms, helmets and vests handcuffing several males’ hands behind their backs.
Two of the men are down on the road, directly behind a stopped vehicle; the others appear to have been detained on the footpath.
Why the men were travelling to Bondi is not known.
Images taken after the arrests show two men clad in black and on their knees, with their hands zip-tied behind their backs.
NSW police at 5pm confirmed that a police operation was under way on George Street, Liverpool, and that there was no ongoing risk to the community.
Several rubber bullets appeared to have been fired at the scene, with one photo showing a smashed section of windscreen.
Police make arrests in Liverpool on Thursday. Picture: Supplied
The video also appears to show two stopped vehicles, which had a head-on collision, next to the men being detained.
A white hatchback that had been involved in the collision, with Victorian number plates, remained at the scene with police tape draped across it.
A second video shows what appears to be a second arrest of a man travelling in another car with Victorian number plates, that incident coming at the nearby Laurantus Serviceway.
Opposition finance spokesman James Paterson said the operation “shows the heightened environment we’re in”.
He said images of police in camouflage, holding long arms and standing over detainees with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, was “an image we’re more used to seeing come out of Gaza, not out of Sydney”.
“Police don’t take action like that lightly,” he told Sky News.
The police operation in Liverpool on Thursday. Picture: Supplied
The police operation comes amid heightened tensions following Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach.
Although police have not confirmed the reason for the detentions, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett on Thursday morning said more raids would come in the wake of the Bondi Beach terror attack.
“In the coming days, the New South Wales Joint Counter Terrorism Team will execute further search warrants to support our investigation,” she said.
“There is a lot of material to be examined, and the AFP continues to work with both domestic and international partners to build a more complete picture of the movements of the alleged offenders and who (they) had contact with, both in Australia and offshore.
Liverpool is about 30km southwest of the Sydney CBD.