Terror suspect who stabbed police had just had passport cancelled

Some experts suspect Tuesday’s attack was inspired by the Islamic State (IS) group’s call to supporters to wage terror in their home countries.

An Australian Federal Police officer and a Victoria state officer who were part of a Joint Counter Terrorism Team had asked the 18-year-old to come to a police station in south-east Melbourne to answer questions after first drawing their attention three months ago, Victoria police commissioner Ken Lay said.

The trio exchanged handshakes before the man began stabbing the two officers. One of the officers shot the man dead.

“Our members had no inkling that this individual posed a threat to them and as far as we were concerned, it was going to be an amicable discussion about that individual’s behaviour,” Assistant commissioner Luke Cornelius of Victoria state police said, adding that the officer had “no choice” but to shoot.

Police would not name the man or the officer who shot him. It appeared the man was acting alone and that the violence was an isolated incident, Mr Cornelius said.

The man had recently exhibited behaviour that had caused police “significant concern”, Mr Lay said, including being seen waving what appeared to be an IS flag at a shopping centre.

Australian Federal Police acting commissioner Andrew Colvin said the man’s passport was cancelled about a week ago on national security grounds.

Mr Colvin said it was not yet clear whether reports that the man had threatened prime minister Tony Abbott before he was shot were true, but the man had not made any “specific threats”.

A second knife was found on the man’s body after he was shot.

Both police officers were taken to a hospital. The federal officer was in a serious but stable condition and the state policeman’s condition was said to be stable.

Mr Abbott, on his way to New York to attend a UN Security Council meeting on the problem of 15,000 foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, said: “Obviously this indicates that there are people in our community who are capable of very extreme acts.”

A statement issued by IS spokesman Abu Muhammad al-Adnani this week urged Muslims to use all means to kill a “disbelieving American or European – especially the spiteful and filthy French – or an Australian or a Canadian”.