Australia shooting 'an act of terrorism': PM

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Saturday that a Sydney attack in which a 15-year-old gunman shot dead a civilian police employee appeared to have been an act of terrorism.

Police said the teen, who they did not name, was shot dead in an exchange of fire with officers after he killed finance worker Curtis Cheng at close range outside the New South Wales force's headquarters in western Sydney on Friday.

Reports said that the youth, who police said was of Iraqi-Kurdish background and had been born in Iran, had been shouting religious slogans before shooting Cheng in the back of the head.

Turnbull called on Australians to go about their lives as usual as they begin a long weekend in which two major sporting finals will be held in Sydney and Melbourne.

Andrew Scipione, the police commissioner for the state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, told reporters that investigators were a "long way" from establishing what exactly prompted the attack, adding that the boy had no criminal history.