A Somali-Australian expressed his appreciation for his new home in Melbourne:
Police are treating an attack in Melbourne’s Bourke Street mall in which one person was fatally stabbed and two others were injured as an incident of terrorism. The attacker was shot by police as the terrifying scene unfolded in Melbourne’s city district on Friday. He died later that night in hospital.
Witnesses said they heard a loud explosion and saw a car bust into flames outside Target on Bourke Street, between Swanston and Russell Streets, about 4.20pm.
Chief commissioner Graham Ashton said the attacker was known to police and federal intelligence agencies. “What we know so far about the individual … from what we know we are treating this as a terrorism incident,” he said. “We believe we have confirmation on the identity [and] there are ongoing investigations being conducted by counter-terrorism. I am not at liberty to disclose the identity of this person. He is known to police, mainly in respect to relatives that he has that are persons of interest to us. He is someone who is accordingly known to Victoria Police and the federal intelligence authorities.”
The man had a minor offending history of drug, theft and driving offences, lived in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne, and came to Australia from Somalia in the 1990s, he said.
Perhaps it was his anger over Australian meddling in the Middle East. Either way, if we have learned one thing over the last 17 years, explosions are just part and parcel of living in any big city that is home to the Religion of Peace.