NSW Police say a group of seven men were arrested in south-western Sydney on Thursday evening under federal terror laws.
Police are investigating whether a “violent act was possibly being planned” in a number of Sydney locations, including Bondi Beach.
Speaking on ABC radio on Friday morning, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson said no guns were found in the two vehicles, but one knife was seized.
The men had travelled from Victoria, and were known to police.
When asked by ABC host Thomas Oriti if the men had “a similar sort of ideological adherence to Islamic extremism” to the Bondi shooters, Hudson said police believed that to be the case, and are continuing their investigations.
Vision posted to social media shows heavily-armed tactical police ramming a vehicle, detaining the passengers.
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Hudson said police took action “before [the men] had the ability to obtain any further capability”.
“Our tolerance for risk and threshold for risk is, as you can understand, very low at the moment following last Sunday’s atrocities... and we made the decision that we weren’t going to take any chances,” Hudson said.
15 people were killed at Bondi Beach on Sunday in a terror attack against the local Jewish community allegedly inspired by terror organisation IS.
On Tuesday, the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC) released a statement condemning IS.
The group said IS “does not represent Islam or the Muslim world in any way”.
