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Father of shot men died in police standoff

The brothers were shot when police tried to intercept them at a campground on the Victoria-NSW border.

The brothers were shot when police tried to intercept them at a campground on the Victoria-NSW border. Photo: Channel Nine

Two brothers shot by police near the Victoria-NSW border on Wednesday afternoon have been identified as the sons of a former fugitive who killed himself during a police siege in 2014.

The brothers, aged 30 and 19, were shot by Victoria Police officers near a camping ground at Barnawartha North, near Albury-Wodonga, on Wednesday afternoon after an attempted counter-terror check turned violent.

They have been identified by Channel Nine News as Joel, 19, and Joshua Clavell, 30.

Their father Rodney Clavell, a 46-year-old former prison guard and wanted criminal, took his own life during a dramatic 13-hour siege at a massage parlour in Adelaide in 2014.

Four women had been held hostage during the ordeal, which sent the CBD into lockdown.

South Australian police escorted a woman believed to be a hostage during a siege involving Rodney Clavell. Photo: AAP

Rodney Clavell

Rodney Clavell was once one of South Australia’s most wanted criminals. Photo: AAP

Counter Terrorism Command Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther said in Melbourne on Thursday that the elder of the brothers had committed to a fundamentalist form of Islam several years ago before being sent to prison in NSW and had been converting his three brothers, including the 19-year-old.

Police believe he converted to radical Islam a few years ago and had travelled to Bangladesh to get married years earlier.

Counter Terrorism Command Assistant Commissioner Ross Guenther speaks to media on Thursday. Photo: AAP

“I understand the older one has a history of a pretty strong hatred of police,” Mr Guenther told the media on Thursday.

He said the 30-year-old was deemed a “very high” threat level.

The younger brother, meanwhile, was not on a police watchlist.

Officers said they had tried to pull over the pair near a camping ground where the young men had been staying at Barnawartha North about 3pm on Wednesday.

Police say the brothers rammed the police car and lunged at the officers with a knife and a tomahawk.

Police said earlier that one of the men charged at officers and was shot.

They then tried to negotiate with the second man “for a number of minutes” and used capsicum spray and a taser on him, but he would not put down his weapon.

He was then shot after lunging at police with his weapon.

Both men were taken to Albury Hospital with serious injuries.

The 30-year-old was later flown to The Alfred hospital in Melbourne with abdominal injuries.

He will be interviewed when his injuries are deemed “survivable”.

The 19-year-old remains in the Albury hospital.

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