ATTEMPTED BOMBING OF PROTESTERS IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA DECLARED ACT OF TERROR

SYDNEY, Feb 5 (Bernama-Xinhua) -- An attempted bombing of a crowd of protesters in the capital of Western Australia (WA) in January has been declared an act of terror, authorities said on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

WA Premier Roger Cook said at a press conference that police have deemed that the attempted bombing was motivated by a racist, hateful ideology and that the alleged culprit has become the first person in the state's history to be charged with engaging in a terrorist act.

The 31-year-old man was arrested shortly after a suspected homemade explosive device was thrown into a crowd of thousands of people who had gathered in central Perth for a protest led by Indigenous Australians on Australia Day on Jan 26.

He was initially charged with one count of making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances and with one count of endangering the life, health and safety of others.

Cook said on Thursday that further investigations had determined that the incident should be treated as a terrorist act.

"We must condemn this incident in the strongest possible way," he said. "The attack was motivated by racist, hateful ideology."

Authorities previously said that the device contained ball bearings, screws and an unknown liquid in a glass container and that it was designed to explode on impact.

Cook said on Thursday that it could have been a mass casualty event if the device had detonated as intended.

WA Police Commissioner Col Blanch said that authorities had no intelligence that the attack was being planned.

--BERNAMA-XINHUA