Four bearded 'Middle Eastern' men accused of storming a western Sydney cinema shouting 'Allahu Akbar' were in fact local Sikhs unimpressed with Baywatch
Police officers were called at the Hoyts Blacktown at Westpoint shopping centre on Sunday night after reports of a disturbance.
Investigators were told four men yelled comments within two cinemas at the complex causing some concerned customers to leave the building, a police spokesman told.
General secretary of Australian Sikh Association, Jagtar Singh, helped locate the four men using a CCTV image from the cinema and put them in touch with police.
'They told me they went to watch Baywatch. There is a very famous Indian actress in the film, Priyanka Chopra. Probably they went to see her at that movie but they didn't like it. That's what they told me.,’ Mr Singh told.
Movie-goers, many of them families, were reported to be terrified of an imminent terrorist attack after the incident about 8pm on Sunday, June 11.
One witness said she initially thought the incident was 'a sick joke'. She was close.
A manhunt was launched for the intruders, who were described by police as four bearded men of Middle Eastern appearances, aged in their 20s, wearing dark clothing.
“The officers told that these men were not charged and they just wanted to speak to them to clear their doubt,” Jagtar Singh of the Australian Sikh Association told.
All four had denied saying 'Allahu Akbar' and he had no idea why they would use those words. He did not believe they had. 'It doesn't make sense,' Mr Singh said.
'I couldn't see any purpose from those four gentlemen why they should say "Allahu Akbar". They told me they didn't say it.'
Mr Singh was concerned the Sikh community had been unfairly maligned by a misunderstanding.
'We Sikh people, we don't say Allahu Akbar,' he said.
