SYDNEY: The shooting incident in an Australian town that left six people dead in December last year has been declared a religiously-motivated terrorist attack by the police.

Australian police on Thursday blamed a family’s Christian fundamentalist beliefs for the attack.

The family opened fire when four police officers arrived on Dec 12 for a routine missing persons’ investigation at their home in the small town of Wieambilla in Queensland.

Three family members — Gareth Train, his wife Stacey Train, and his brother Nathaniel Train — killed two officers and one neighbour, before dying in a shootout with police.

Counter-terrorism and intelligence police have since searched for a motive for the bloody event, trawling through diaries, books, phone messages, emails, witness statements and body-worn camera footage, police said.

The family subscribed to a fundamentalist belief known as “premillennialism”, which predicted Christ would return to Earth after a period of tribulation, widespread destruction and suffering, she told reporters.

An examination of Stacey Train’s diary in particular indicated that a range of things perpetuated their belief, such as Covid-19, climate change and global conflicts, Linford said.

The investigation found that the three family members “acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack”, said Queensland’s deputy police commissioner, Tracy Linford.

According to BBC News, authorities said it was the first time Christian extremist ideology had been linked to a terror attack in the country.

“Christian extremist ideology has been linked to other attacks around the world, but this is the first time we’ve seen it appear in Australia,” Ms Linford said.

The attack was premeditated, she said, and investigators had found “significant evidence” of advance preparation and planning.—AFP

Their property had been set up with camouflaged hideouts, barriers, dirt mounts, guns, knives, CCTV and mirrors on trees.

While there’s “no evidence” that anyone else in Australia participated or assisted in the attack, Ms Linford said the Trains have been linked to individuals in the United States. Police have shared information with investigators there.

“They’ll determine what investigations they might make as a result of that information,” she said.

Ms Linford said there was “not one catalyst” for the trio’s extremism.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2023