Counter-terrorism measures will be intensified at popular Australian holiday events such as Christmas markets and New Year's Eve celebrations to avoid the type of mass casualty terrorist attack suffered in Berlin early on Tuesday morning.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has spoken to Australian Federal Police commissioner Andrew Colvin about taking precautions to mitigate the risks of terrorists using trucks as weapons to inflict mass casualties in crowds, as used in Berlin and Nice earlier this year.
Nine people died and 50 people were injured after the 19-tonne truck ploughed into a popular tourist Christmas market in Berlin. Just hours earlier the Russian ambassador to Turkey was murdered while giving a speech at an art gallery in Ankara. There have also been attacks in Nigeria, Yemen, Istanbul, Somalia, Cairo and Jordan in recent weeks.
Mr Turnbull condemned the killing of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov by a 22-year-old off-duty Turkish policeman, describing it as a "cowardly assassination".
He went on to reassure Australians that "we have finest police and security forces in the world, we are keenly focused on keeping Australians safe, whether they are at a market or a New Year's Eve celebration, wherever they may be".
"Nonetheless we cannot mitigate all risk entirely but we are working night and day to keep Australians safe, and we are very attentive to events internationally, to ensure that we learn from them and make sure that we put measures in place to anticipate similar occurrences here."
No Australians were affected by the attacks in Berlin and Turkey overnight and Mr Turnbull said he'd spoken to Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, Justice Minister Michael Keenan, ASIO chief Duncan Lewis, the AFP's Mr Colvin and the government's counter-terrorism co-ordinator Greg Moriarty about stepping up security in Australia.
"We are also intensifying the steps that we have already set in place to ensure that we have the protective measures to respond to attacks such as that that we've seen in Berlin," Mr Turnbull said.
"As you know, this was a truck attack, this appears to be a similar type of attack to that in Nice earlier in the year.
"Following that attack, I tasked my counter-terrorism co-ordinator to review all of our measures to protect mass attendance events from attacks like this, and we have been working with the state and territory police forces to that end."
He said Mr Colvin had been in touch with his state and territory police counterparts on Tuesday morning to ensure "everyone is well prepared to accept – to anticipate – attacks of this kind".
