The siege that claimed the lives of two police officers and an innocent bystander has been deemed a “religiously-motivated terrorist attack” by Queensland Police.

Deputy Police Commissioner Tracy Linford said the force combed through 190 statements and the lives of the Train family, with police concluding that the trio subscribed to the “Christian extremist ideology” while also conceding that they radicalised themselves in isolation.

“Nathaniel, Gareth, and Stacey Train acted as an autonomous cell and executed a religiously-motivated terrorist attack,” Linford told reporters on Feb. 16.

“The Train family members subscribe to what we would call a broad Christian fundamentalist belief system known as pre-millennialism—it’s a belief system that comes from Christian theology,” she said.

“Christian extremist ideology has been linked to other attacks around the world, but this is the first time we’ve seen it appear in Australia.”

She also said that the Trains subscribed to parts of the sovereign citizen movement, but at the same time, they could not be classified as falling under this category.

Queensland Police were assisted by the Australian Federal Police, as well as the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation in their investigations.

Linford said a U.S. citizen, named Don, was deemed a person of interest in the case after the individual was found to have posted videos online before and after the attack referring to the Trains.

Australian authorities noted they had contacted U.S. authorities over the issue.

Linford also said the three assailants wore camouflaged clothing, erected barriers, and were found to have prepared a range of weaponry, including six firearms, compound bows and arrows, as well as knives.

At around 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 12, four police officers were called to investigate a routine missing person report for Nathaniel Train at a property on Wains Rd in Wieambilla, near the remote inland Queensland town of Chinchilla.

Two young constables, Matthew Arnold, 26, and Rachel McCrow, 29, were hit with a “hail of gunshots” as they jumped a fence to access the house, according to Queensland Police Union President Ian Leavers.

The pair fell, forcing their colleagues to take cover, with one (Keely Brough) fleeing into the bushes around the property and the other (Randall Kirk) towards the squad car.

A neighbour, 58-year-old Alan Dare, was also gunned down and shot in the back after going out to investigate.

A siege later ensued, resulting in the deaths of the three shooters.

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The head of Australia’s domestic spy agency, ASIO, Director-General Mike Burgess, recently said the agency’s caseload was taken up largely by “religiously motivated extremists,” noting that those linked with Sunni Islam were the “principal concern in the terrorism space.”

Burgess noted that the biggest threat now was radicalised individuals who would resort to violence with little to no warning.

“They’re acting on their own because something has set them off, including maybe the group they’re in isn’t satisfying their need to do what they believe it is they should do,” he said.

This comes after Burgess noted that Australia had seen a reduction in the threat levels of violent extremism, which he said had dropped by 20 percent since the federal government and state governments rolled back  COVID lockdowns and restrictions.

“It is true; there are less people in this country who want to conduct active violence in the name of their cause,” said Mike Burgess, head of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).

“The volatility has reduced. In particular, around COVID. So, there is less angst these days as we’re not subject to mandates,” he told a Senate Estimates hearing.

According to ASIO, right-wing extremism accounted for 50 percent of the agency’s caseload but dropped to 30 percent since lockdowns and mandates eased.