Australian police foiled ‘catastrophic’ terror raid

TWO Islamic terror cells were rushing to become the first to stage a major “jihad” terror bombing in Australia, a prosecutor said yesterday.

This follows the arrest by armed police of 17 suspects in a string of coordinated pre-dawn raids in two cities.

“The police forces of this country might just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism ... either in Melbourne or in Sydney,” said New South Wales Police Minister Carl Scully.