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http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5716431%5E661,00.html
Fourteen bombs seized
By LILLIAN SALEH and NICOLLE SHEPHERD
21dec02
FOURTEEN high-explosive nail bombs were seized by police in a dramatic raid in Sydney yesterday.
The bombs had enough power to kill and maim hundreds of people, police said.
Made from ammonium nitrate and filled with nails and metal shards, they were designed to inflict maximum injury if detonated in a confined space.
Police were investigating the possibility of a terrorist attack being planned on Australia.
The terror scare, which centred on the western Sydney home of South African national Gill Daniels – described by neighbours as a militant Muslim – happened by chance.
Mr Daniels, 36, had not paid rent on his Liverpool flat for two months and sheriffs arrived yesterday morning to evict him.
Mr Daniels was not there so the sheriffs broke into the apartment where they found the bombs, Islamic literature and a blackboard covered in Arabic writing.
Six carloads of detectives, the bomb squad and the fire service rushed to the scene.
When Mr Daniels returned home in the afternoon to find his flat swarming with police, he sped off in his early model BMW but was caught in traffic two streets away.
Police said last night that every possibility, including a domestic terror attack, was being investigated in relation to the raid.
"Whether they be religious, political, ideological, it is too early to say," Assistant Commissioner Dave Madden said at Liverpool police station, where Mr Daniels is being interrogated.
The bombs were 12cm soda syphon bottles filled with ammonium nitrate and pieces of metal and nails.
They were similar to bombs used by terrorists in the Middle East and Ireland.
They could have been quickly wired to detonators to cause maximum death and injury in an enclosed public space.
Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical al-Qaeda terrorists planned to use in thwarted attacks on Western interests in South-East Asia, including the Australian High Commission in Singapore.
It was also used in the Oklahoma bombing, which killed 168 people in 1995.
Neighbours said Mr Daniels was a bricklayer and a divorced father of two.
"He used to call anyone who wasn't a Muslim a heathen," one neighbour said.
Other residents said Mr Daniels often returned home late at night to his third-storey apartment.
"There were heaps of TVs and computers lying around everywhere," said Felix Singh, 25.
Other neighbours said Mr Daniels had kept piles of Islamic literature.
One said Mr Daniels was often frustrated by the way he was treated by neighbours.
"He was very upset by the state of the world and was always saying people are pushed too much into doing things," the neighbour said.
Mr Madden said it was too early for police to say exactly what plans Mr Daniels had for the bombs, found in the lounge room of the two-bedroom flat.
"If the devices had not had the pieces of metal contained in the actual containers, they would simply be explosive devices and they would blow up without causing much damage," he said.
"The mere presence of the nails and other devices mean they could have been much more lethal."
Officers allegedly found several other suspicious items in the unit's garage, but the spokesman would not identify the items. It is understood they included wires and chemicals.
The unit had been rented by Mr Daniels for about three months, but it is understood he had not paid rent for about eight weeks.
Detectives lying in wait for Mr Daniels to return home ordered residents not to congregate in the street.
After arresting him two streets away, they ordered a passing tow-truck driver to tow the car back to the flat.
The raid happened a day after NSW Emergency Services held a mock terrorism trial.
Fourteen bombs seized
By LILLIAN SALEH and NICOLLE SHEPHERD
21dec02
FOURTEEN high-explosive nail bombs were seized by police in a dramatic raid in Sydney yesterday.
The bombs had enough power to kill and maim hundreds of people, police said.
Made from ammonium nitrate and filled with nails and metal shards, they were designed to inflict maximum injury if detonated in a confined space.
Police were investigating the possibility of a terrorist attack being planned on Australia.
The terror scare, which centred on the western Sydney home of South African national Gill Daniels – described by neighbours as a militant Muslim – happened by chance.
Mr Daniels, 36, had not paid rent on his Liverpool flat for two months and sheriffs arrived yesterday morning to evict him.
Mr Daniels was not there so the sheriffs broke into the apartment where they found the bombs, Islamic literature and a blackboard covered in Arabic writing.
Six carloads of detectives, the bomb squad and the fire service rushed to the scene.
When Mr Daniels returned home in the afternoon to find his flat swarming with police, he sped off in his early model BMW but was caught in traffic two streets away.
Police said last night that every possibility, including a domestic terror attack, was being investigated in relation to the raid.
"Whether they be religious, political, ideological, it is too early to say," Assistant Commissioner Dave Madden said at Liverpool police station, where Mr Daniels is being interrogated.
The bombs were 12cm soda syphon bottles filled with ammonium nitrate and pieces of metal and nails.
They were similar to bombs used by terrorists in the Middle East and Ireland.
They could have been quickly wired to detonators to cause maximum death and injury in an enclosed public space.
Ammonium nitrate is the same chemical al-Qaeda terrorists planned to use in thwarted attacks on Western interests in South-East Asia, including the Australian High Commission in Singapore.
It was also used in the Oklahoma bombing, which killed 168 people in 1995.
Neighbours said Mr Daniels was a bricklayer and a divorced father of two.
"He used to call anyone who wasn't a Muslim a heathen," one neighbour said.
Other residents said Mr Daniels often returned home late at night to his third-storey apartment.
"There were heaps of TVs and computers lying around everywhere," said Felix Singh, 25.
Other neighbours said Mr Daniels had kept piles of Islamic literature.
One said Mr Daniels was often frustrated by the way he was treated by neighbours.
"He was very upset by the state of the world and was always saying people are pushed too much into doing things," the neighbour said.
Mr Madden said it was too early for police to say exactly what plans Mr Daniels had for the bombs, found in the lounge room of the two-bedroom flat.
"If the devices had not had the pieces of metal contained in the actual containers, they would simply be explosive devices and they would blow up without causing much damage," he said.
"The mere presence of the nails and other devices mean they could have been much more lethal."
Officers allegedly found several other suspicious items in the unit's garage, but the spokesman would not identify the items. It is understood they included wires and chemicals.
The unit had been rented by Mr Daniels for about three months, but it is understood he had not paid rent for about eight weeks.
Detectives lying in wait for Mr Daniels to return home ordered residents not to congregate in the street.
After arresting him two streets away, they ordered a passing tow-truck driver to tow the car back to the flat.
The raid happened a day after NSW Emergency Services held a mock terrorism trial.