A gunman who killed a man and took a woman hostage before dying in a police shootout had been acquitted of plotting a terror attack at a Sydney army base years earlier, police said Tuesday. The gunman, Yacqub Khayre, 29, was one of two men acquitted by a jury in 2010 of plotting a suicide attack in Sydney. On Monday, Khayre booked an appointment with an escort in an apartment building in Brighton and arrived carrying a shotgun, sparking a two-hour siege. Khayre then called police to say he had a hostage in an apartment and made threats to her if police intervened. Police said the Melbourne siege was the fifth terrorist incident in Australia since the threat level was lifted in September 2014.

Source: CBC News June 06, 2017 00:23 UTC