SYDNEY – Police have arrested and charged a teenager who they say was in the advanced stages of planning a terrorism attack on Sydney’s Anzac Day commemorations.

The 16-year-old boy was arrested by counter terrorism police near his Auburn home on Sunday afternoon and will appear before a children’s court today.

The offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione addressed the media after the Dawn Service in Sydney, saying police were unsure which Anzac Day event was to be targeted in the attack.

But he said the threat related to Sydney and was at the stage where counter terrorism officers had to act and act quickly.

“Officers were forced to act yesterday afternoon. We had to do that in order to ensure the safety of the community.”

“Clearly we’ve taken that action with community safety on the eve of the sacred day which is Anzac Day.”

Mr Scipione added that police believed the boy was acting alone.

“The risk from this particular threat has been thwarted,” he said.

Anzac Day is a major annual holiday in Australia and New Zealand marking the date of the first Gallipoli landings in 1915, in which large numbers of Australian and New Zealand troops fought and died.

Dawn services and military parades are held around the country, with the largest drawing crowds of tens of thousands in Sydney and Melbourne.

Several teenagers have been arrested in Australia in recent years and charged with terrorism offences, including five young men who police alleged were planning an attack at last year’s centenary Anzac day celebrations.

Police said those planning the attack last year clearly took inspiration from the Islamic State movement, also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS.

– with other agencies