Security heightened in Australia after airplane bomb plot foiled

Airplane passengers in Australia.
(Image credit: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

Airports in Australia are taking extra precaution checking baggage, following law enforcement's discovery of a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Sunday said the plan had been disrupted, but would not comment on newspaper reports that Islamic extremists had been wanting to make a homemade bomb disguised as a kitchen tool, which would emit poison gas to either kill or impair the plane's passengers and crew. Four men have been arrested in raids, two Lebanese-Australian fathers and their sons, but they have yet to be charged, The Associated Press reports.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.