Terrorism threat against Australian state police raised to "high"

SYDNEY - Australian state police said on Tuesday that federal authorities have raised the official terrorism threat against police officers around the country to "high" from "medium".

"The new threat level specifically has taken into account instances of attacks on police internationally on a number of occasions in the past few months," Queensland state Police Commissioner Ian Stewart told reporters.

The change in the threat level for police officers brings it in line with the current threat level against the general public, which was raised to high in September.

Another senior state police official said earlier there was evidence of a specific threat to police, but later retracted that comment, saying he had misspoke.