One of the five men accused of plotting a terrorist attack to take place in Melbourne’s CBD on Christmas Day has been released, with the other four being charged and three already refused bail.

Three men – Hamza Abbas, 21, of Flemington, Ahmed Mohamed, 24, from Meadow Heights and 26-year-old Abdullah Chaarani – were each charged on Friday with one count of preparing or planning a terror attack. All faced court on Friday afternoon and were refused bail.

Ibrahim Abbas, a 22-year-old man from Broadmeadows, was charged with the same offence at an out-of-sessions hearing on Friday night. He appeared before Melbourne Magistrates Court with a black eye on Saturday. His lawyer said Abbas sustained the black eye during police raids on Friday.

Counter terrorism police allege the four men were behind an Islamic State-inspired plot targeting Flinders Street Station, Federation Square and St Paul’s Cathedral on Christmas Day.



Police arrested the men following raids that involved about 400 police officers on Thursday night, at properties in Flemington, Meadow Heights, Dallas, Campbellfield and Gladstone Park.

On Friday morning Victoria’s police commissioner, Graham Ashton, said the attack police alleged was being planned for Christmas Day was going to involve “an explosive event, the use of explosives, and we gathered evidence to support that”.

Ashton said there would be an increased police presence for the Boxing Day Test at the MCG and over the new year period, but there was no longer any direct threat, saying police had “neutralised” the situation.

The Australian federal police commissioner, Andrew Colvin, said compared with other threatened attacks in the past few years, the alleged plot “concerns me more than any other event that I’ve seen”.

“They had moved very quickly from an intention to a capability, and developed capability, including quite progressed plans, we will allege.”

“This news will be of great concern to all Australians,” the prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said. “We are approaching the Christmas season, a time when we come together in peace and love, with our families. We congregate in public places for Christmas, for New Year’s Eve. It is a time of happiness and joy.”