Sydney terror threat: Explosives, list of Jewish targets discovered in caravan

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson says the possible terror incident in Dural, Sydney, was being taken seriously. Photo / Getty Images

• Explosives and a list of Jewish targets were found in a caravan in Sydney’s northwest.
• NSW Police and other agencies are investigating the incident as a credible terror threat.
• Deputy Commissioner David Hudson stated there is no ongoing threat to the community.

By Clareese Packer

Explosives and a note of Jewish targets were found in a caravan in Sydney’s northwest.

A resident in Dural reportedly made the chilling find in an abandoned caravan on Derriwong Rd, according to the Daily Telegraph, with the masthead reporting the incident was being treated as a credible terror threat.

NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said police were contacted on January 19 and recovered a caravan on a rural residential property.

“The caravan contained an amount of explosives and some indication that those explosives might be used in some form of anti-Semitic attack,” he said.

More than 100 officers have been brought in to investigate the incident.

“We have made arrests on the periphery of this job, but we are still looking for assistance in relation to anyone who saw that caravan parked by the side of the road from the seventh of December to the 19th of January this year,” he said.

The find comes after the former home of Jewish leader Alex Ryvchin was vandalised in Dover Heights and a Maroubra childcare centre was firebombed and tagged with anti-Semitic graffiti.

Strike Force Pearl was earlier established to investigate anti-Semitic attacks in Sydney.

“We believe there is some connection between some of the targets we’ve charged under Strikeforce Pearl in this particular investigation,” Hudson said.

He said this incident had marked an “escalation” in anti-Semitic attacks.

“The discovery and detection of the caravan, containing an amount of explosives, was not going to be in the normal anti-Semitic attack that we have seen occur in Sydney, such as graffiti and arson attacks,” he said.

“This is certainly an escalation of that, with the use of explosives that have the potential to cause a great deal of damage.”

He said there was no information to indicate there were “further explosives in our community in relation to conducting anti-Semitic attacks anywhere”.

“We believe that we have contained appropriately this current threat,” he said.

“We will not rest until these matters are resolved.

“We understand the concerns of the community, we understand the concerns of the Jewish community, and we take all these threats exceptionally seriously.”

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the “full resources of the state of NSW 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 anti-Semitic violence in our community — that anyone attempting terrorism, violence, hatred in our community will be met with the full force of the law,” Minns said.

“There are massive amounts of police and government resources being devoted to this investigation, that there will be absolutely no tolerance under any circumstances for these acts of criminal violence in our community, and anyone attempting this level of violence in NSW will be met by every resource that we have to throw at it.”

Minns said there were “bad actors in our community”.

“They’re intent on doing damage and harm to others in the community, people they’ve never met before, purely on the basis of their religion. It’s hateful,” Minns said.

“It’s an ideology that we need to stamp out.

“The vast majority of people in NSW find this behaviour abhorrent, appalling, against all of the values and beliefs that we share in NSW, and we will defeat them.”

Hudson earlier said the incident was being taken “seriously”.

“The NSW Police Force is working with the Australian Federal Police, NSW Crime Commission, ASIO [Australian Security Intelligence Organisation], Victoria Police and the Queensland Police Service,” Hudson said.

“This is an ongoing investigation and is being taken seriously with all lines of inquiry being pursued.

“There is no ongoing threat to the community.”