Australian police respond to reports of shooting at Sydney police station

UPDATE: A man in his 40s has been shot dead, according to The Sydney Morning Herald. He had reportedly threatened police officers at Quakers Hill police station before succumbing to his injuries.

SYDNEY - A police operation was underway at a police station in a suburb in the west of Sydney, Australia's largest city, emergency services said on Tuesday, with domestic media reporting at least one person had been shot.

A police spokeswoman said an operation was underway at the station in Quakers Hill, a suburb 40 km (25 miles) west of the city's central business district. No further details were available immediately.

Australia is on heightened alert for attacks by home-grown militants. Authorities say they have thwarted a number of potential attacks, although there have been several "lone wolf"assaults in recent months.

An accountant working for the New South Wales state police was killed when a 15-year-old boy opened fire outside police headquarters in the suburb of Parramatta, also in Sydney's west, in October last year.

The teenager, Farhad Khalil Mohammad Jabar, was killed in a subsequent gunfight with police.

Critical incident investigation begins at Quakers Hill https://t.co/W6jEHFI9j0

— NSW Police (@nswpolice) January 19, 2016