On Monday, Police in a shootout, killed a man they said had held a woman hostage inside an apartment building in Melbourne. Islamic State said via its news agency, Amaq, that the attack was launched because of Australia's membership in a U.S.-led coalition against the militant group.
Australian police today, said that they were treating the siege in Melbourne as an "act of terrorism" after ISIS claimed that one of its fighters was the gunman responsible for . "We are treating it as an act of terrorism," Victoria state police Commissioner Graham Ashton told the Seven television network on Tuesday.
"We believe this person was there with those sorts of intentions, albeit we don't know whether it was something planned or something spontaneous at this stage."
Police were also investigating a telephone call made to the Seven newsroom during the siege, where a male caller said the attack was related to Islamic State. Police rescued the woman taken hostage in Melbourne after a standoff lasting more than an hour in the beachside suburb of Brighton. Three officers were wounded in the shootout which ended the siege, and a second man, in addition to the hostage-taker, died from a gunshot wound, police said. Since September 2014, police have foiled a dozen terrorist plots and made 63 arrests, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Monday.
Source: Reuters
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