{"id":549146,"date":"2026-01-28T12:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549146\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T12:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:23:12","slug":"authorities-investigate-bomb-allegedly-thrown-into-perth-invasion-day-rally-crowd-as-potential-terrorist-act","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/549146\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities investigate bomb allegedly thrown into Perth Invasion Day rally crowd as ‘potential terrorist act’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Authorities have confirmed they are investigating the alleged throwing of a bomb into an Invasion Day rally crowd in Perth as a “potential terrorist act”.<\/p>\n

WA Police allege a 31-year-old man threw a device containing screws and ball bearings surrounded by an explosive liquid into the crowd of about 2,500 people in the heart of Perth’s CBD.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Man charged over Invasion Day chaos<\/a><\/p>\n

A 31-year-old man is charged with making explosives in suspicious circumstances after a device was allegedly thrown into a crowd of hundreds of people attending an Invasion Day rally in central Perth yesterday.<\/p>\n

“It had the potential to explode and injure many people or kill them,” Commissioner Col Blanch had told ABC Radio Perth.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old has been charged with intent to do harm in such a way as to endanger life, health or safety, and with making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances.<\/p>\n

A joint statement by WA Police, the Australian Federal Police and domestic security agency ASIO issued on Wednesday evening said the agencies’ investigations were ongoing.<\/p>\n

After questions had been raised about why the alleged act had not yet been labelled a potential terrorist incident<\/a>, the Joint Counter Terror Team confirmed the incident was now being treated as a “potential terrorist act”.<\/p>\n

“Further charges have not been ruled out,” the unit said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“There is no ongoing threat to public safety.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Video released by police shows what they say is the moment<\/a> the alleged bomb is thrown into the crowd, but with little reaction from anyone near where it lands.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Police said the suspect was arrested a short time later, but it appears the device was not immediately located by officers.<\/p>\n

A witness who said she saw the device land near where she was standing recalled handing it to police<\/a>, who later evacuated the crowd, warning “your safety is paramount to us”.<\/p>\n

What are experts saying?<\/p>\n

Director of the Curtin Extremism Research Network, Ben Rich, said ideological motivations behind a particular attack were the key to distinguishing a terrorist act from other events just designed to cause fear.<\/p>\n

‘Scared for our children’: Stronger response urged on alleged rally attack<\/a><\/p>\n

First Nations leaders have urged governments to take stronger action in response to the alleged attack at an Invasion Day rally in Perth on Monday.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just \u2026 trying to do damage to the society, but it’s that you’re trying to do damage to the society to ultimately create room for another interpretation, politically, of society,” Dr Rich said.<\/p>\n

Event organiser Fabian Yarran had previously claimed “the police, government and media response in the 24 hours following the incident has been inadequate, consisting solely of investigations and charges for less serious, non-terror and non-hate offences”.<\/p>\n

Independent Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe also questioned why the incident was not being investigated as a potential terror incident.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Independent senator Lidia Thorpe has criticised authorities for acting differently when it comes to First Peoples’ safety.\u00a0 (ABC News: Patrick Stone)<\/p>\n

“Why do the authorities act differently when it comes to First Peoples’ safety and protection in this country?” she said.<\/p>\n

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner Katie Kiss said while the motive was yet to be determined “there is no question that the targets of the attack were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their allies”.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Authorities have confirmed they are investigating the alleged throwing of a bomb into an Invasion Day rally crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":549147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,104,4219,8750,50,60322,60321,8631,7207,8632],"class_list":["post-549146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-breaking-news","tag-crime","tag-emergency-services","tag-news","tag-perth-breaking-news","tag-perth-emergency","tag-perth-news","tag-police","tag-wa-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115972709036503979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}