Canberra, May 24 (IANS): Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday said the government is scheduled to introduce tougher measures on Australian citizens who joined the Islamic State (IS) terror group.

Those measures may include stripping Australian citizenship of those who are found to have been promoting, supporting or taking part in terrorism and prosecute those who have returned or are wanting to, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier this year, the government said it would amend the Citizenship Act so that dual nationals could be stripped of their Australian citizenship if they have been involved in terrorist acts.

"People who are fighting with terrorist groups overseas or who are engaged in terrorist activities here in Australia are effectively taking up arms against us and it's very hard to imagine that we should allow to remain in the bosom of our country people who are trying to destroy us," Abbott said.

"At least 250 Australians, some of them quite young, have become ensnared in the evil ideology of the IS death cult," the prime minister added.

He noted that since the terror alert level was raised from medium to high last September, Australia has witnessed terrorist inspired events in Sydney and in Melbourne, referring to the Lindt cafe siege in Sydney last December and the recent arrests of youngsters in Melbourne, who were charged of staging terrorist attacks on policemen.

Apart from those, Australian police and intelligence agencies have also foiled six terrorist attacks.