UPDATE 2 - Australia: 4 held for alleged Christmas Day terror plot

UPDATES THROUGHOUT

By Recep Sakar

MELBOURNE, Australia (AA) - Three suspects have been charged over what Australian police described Friday as a foiled plot to detonate explosives in Melbourne around Christmas Day.

Seven suspects were arrested overnight in connection to the alleged plot, but three have been released without charge and another is being held in custody due to appear in court Saturday, according to news broadcaster ABC.

The three charged with planning a terrorist attack are due to re-appear in court in April.

Earlier Friday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told a press conference that police and security agencies had “disrupted a very substantial terrorist plot”.

"What they have uncovered is a plot to explode improvised explosive devices in central Melbourne in the area of Federation Square, on or about Christmas Day,” Turnbull said.

"This is one of the most substantial terrorist plots that have been disrupted over the last several years."

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton was quoted by ABC as saying that police had recovered "the makings of an improvised explosive device”.

"Certainly these [people] are self-radicalized, we believe, but inspired by ISIS [Daesh] and ISIS propaganda," he said of the suspects, all in their 20s.

Meanwhile, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said police presence at large gatherings in Victoria would be intensified during the Christmas season.

Australia has been engaged in efforts to increase its anti-terror measures in recent years.

The country has banned citizens from traveling to Mosul in northern Iraq and Syria’s Raqqa province -- unless they have a "legitimate purpose" for being there -- and also passed legislation to strip dual nationals of citizenship if they are convicted or suspected of terrorism offenses.

Earlier this month, it passed new counter-terrorism measures that allow convicted terrorists to be kept in jail once their sentences expire if they continue to be deemed a risk.

The laws were vehemently opposed by the Greens and Liberal Democrats, with Senator David Leyonhjelm calling them an unacceptable erosion of civil liberties.