Police foil planned Christmas Day terror attack in Melbourne

The threat was to prominent locations in the Australian city, including Flinders St Station, Federation Square and St Paul's Cathedral.

Five men are in custody after early-morning raids on Friday, Victoria Police chief Graham Ashton said.

The threat involved "use of explosives" and other weapons including "knives or a firearm".

Ashton said there was no longer a threat to the public.

"We don't have any threat over and above that threat that we've currently neutralised," he said at a press conference.

The raids on five locations in Melbourne's north and west came after weeks of police surveillance.

"We believe that there was an intention to conduct what we call a multi-mode attack, possibly on Christmas Day," Ashton was reported by the BBC as saying.

Four of the suspects were Australian-born men in their 20s of a Lebanese background, while the fifth was an Australian of Egyptian origin, he added.