Australia has reacted in shock to an exchange of gunfire between police and residents of a remote property that has killed a total of six people. Two of those killed were police officers who came to the property in the small town of Wieambilla, Queensland on Monday afternoon to investigate a missing persons case.
According to Australian media, the two police officers, a man and a woman, both under 30 and with little experience, came under fire as soon as they arrived at the site about 300 kilometers from Brisbane. “They were shot at immediately after entering the property – they didn’t stand a chance.”
Two other police officers were able to get to safety in time, one was only slightly injured. All of Australia mourns with the relatives, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on Twitter.
According to the police, three suspects were killed by special forces in the course of an hour-long firefight until the evening on the property. According to the press, they were a man and his wife, who were registered at the address, and the man’s brother. The brother, a former elementary school principal from neighboring New South Wales, had been reported missing some time ago. In addition, an uninvolved neighbor was killed by gunfire.
According to a report in the newspaper The Australian, the resident reported in the house had spread conspiracy theories on the Internet. Among other things, he is said to have expressed the view that the Port Arthur massacre was a conspiracy to take action against gun ownership in Australia.
In the 1996 Port Arthur shooting, a mentally ill Australian killed 35 people and wounded 23 others with two semi-automatic rifles in the Tasmanian city of Port Arthur. As a result of the deadliest bloody crime in Australian history, Australia had significantly tightened gun laws.