CANBERRA, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Saturday that his government was poised to release a "comprehensive national strategy" to protect places of mass gathering from vehicle terror attacks in the wake of the van attack in Barcelona.
Addressing the Tasmanian Liberals in Launceston, Tasmania, the prime minister declared that his government, in consultation with law enforcement authorities and the private sector, has come up with a comprehensive strategy to stop terror attack such as those witnessed in Nice and Barcelona from occurring in Australia.
"We will shortly release the first national strategy for protecting crowded places from terrorism. It has been completed. This is a good example of the approach I take to keeping Australians safe," Turnbull told the forum.
"You may recall last year, there was a vehicle attack, a truck attack, in Nice, France. Many people were killed and many more were injured."
He said that using vehicles has clearly become a new approach by terrorists.
"Vehicles are very easy to acquire. It's not really possible to stop people getting access to a car or small track. Relatively small vehicles can still do large amounts of damage.
"We've brought together state and territory police, intelligence agencies, conferred with counterparts oversea and with owners of big venues, sporting stadiums and shopping malls, and we've come up with a comprehensive strategy."
The news comes after it was revealed that, in addition to the four Australians who were injured in the Barcelona van attack, a seven-year-old Australian boy was also missing.
Turnbull said that Julian Alessandro Cadman, son of Jomari Querimit Cadman - one of the Australians "badly injured" in hospital - was likely alone and lost somewhere in the Catalan city.
"There is a little Australian boy, whose mother was badly injured and is in hospital, and he is lost - missing in Barcelona," Turnbull said.
"We should all, in our quiet moments as parents, should say a quiet prayer for his family as they rush to seek to find him."
