Aircraft bomb plot foiled in Sydney

Australian police have foiled a bomb plot linked to an aircraft in Sydney.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that counter-terrorism teams conducted raids at several addresses in Australia’s largest city on Saturday, after receiving information about a plot to bring down a passenger plane.

Four men are now in custody and a suspicious device was reportedly found at one of the Sydney properties raided.

“These operations are designed to disrupt and prevent plans to undertake terrorist attacks in Australia,” Australia’s Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was quoted saying, while declining to provide further details.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner, Andrew Colvin, told a news conference that the four men arrested were believed to be part of an Islamist plot.

“In recent days, law enforcement has become aware of information that suggested some people in Sydney were planning to commit a terrorist attack using an IED (improvised explosive device),” he was reported saying by the BBC.

No specific details of the device, its target, location, time or date were revealed.

Delays were reported at Sydney Airport on Sunday, as stricter security screening measures are put into place at airports across the country. Passengers are being advised to check-in for their flight least two hours before their scheduled departure time.