Paris is in the grips of a bedbug infestation – but Australia was one of the first nations in the world to successfully stamp out major infestations.

Even an expected post-pandemic resurgence of the bugs after international travel resumed hasn't happened, experts say.

Bedbug expert Stephen Doggett, Director of Medical Entomology at Westmead Hospital for NSW Health Pathology said there are sometimes outbreaks.

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But because of an industry-wide code set up in 2005 by the Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association, which set guidelines on how to tackle pests, there have been no major outbreaks for years.

"We were the first country that saw a decline in bedbugs," he said.

Doggett blamed Paris's outbreak on a mix of issues including the combination of a lot of tourists travelling, high density living and low income housing where people perhaps can't afford to pay for pest control.

"I think that's one of the problem with France, with so many people travelling now, because how bedbugs get from A to B is largely on people's belongings," he said.

But said it's not a new situation for France, where authorities have called for calm.

"There was actually a survey done recently by some colleagues of mine that showed that one in ten houses had bedbugs in France. It's phenomenal," Doggett said.

Doggett said he hasn't seen what he called a "super bedbug infestation" in Australia for six or seven years.

READ MORE: Bedbug plague infests Paris ahead of Olympics

He's experienced such outbreaks in social housing, where people might not be aware of an infestation and might not be able to pay for extermination.

However, he admits Aussies could experience the unwelcome bedfellows when travelling – with airport hotels a particular hotspot because of the high turnover of guests.

But there are ways to check your room, he said.

"The first thing you do is put your bag in the middle of the room," he said.

"Don't put it on the bed.

"Pull the bed away from the wall, pull off all the sheets, the blankets, the bedding and look for signs of bedbugs, particularly along the seams on the bed closest to the wall.

"Bedbugs vary in size from about a mm to about a cm when they're full of blood.

"You look for the bed bugs and you look for their pooh spots.

"You can see groups of sort of little black dots.

"If you see lots of them round the bed and then you see the insects as well… you'll be getting another room."

Trains, buses and even cars can also become infested, though Paris authorities claim reports of them on the Metro are unfounded.

Bedbugs can also be found on planes and Doggett said he was once bitten on an aircraft.

"It's in the frequent flier seats it's always a problem, often business class, and crew quarters," he said.

Bites can look nasty and in some cases can cause health issues.

"We know of cases where people have developed anaemia," Doggett said.

"But people can react quite badly and they take a lot of blood, about ten times that of mosquito and they inject a lot of gunk into you."

He said there is 'mental trauma' associated with the "horrific" experience of being bitten.

Aussies should should see their doctor if they are worried.

Anybody who fears they have bedbugs should visit the AEPMA website and then call the experts rather than trying to use any pesticides themselves he said.

That can be more deadly than the creatures themselves, he said.

"We've seen people buy really toxic chemicals," he said.

"There's been many deaths, people buy it over the internet.

"I know one case a woman used so much chemicals she died," he said.

Meanwhile, David Gay, a pest controller for WR Gay Pest Control for 25 years in Melbourne, said he does a few hundred bedbug treatments a year.

They cost up to $400 and eradication could take more than one visit.

Hot steam and vacuuming are used to a kill bugs and eggs these days, he said.

"Application of a pesticide is the last resort," he said.

And in his experience it's not just cheaper hotels which have had infestations.

"We've seen them in the high end hotels, but to be fair not as common as in more budget accommodations," he said.

What is a bedbug?

A bedbug is a six legged insect. It has two antennae and is typically about 6mm. They feed on blood.

They spent much of the time hidden in crevices waiting to emerge at night in search of a host.

They can travel several metres, as well as on items like suitcases and bedding.

They are attracted by heat and carbon dioxide – such as sleeping humans.

A bed bug population can double in as little as 16 days.

Bedbugs can stay alive for a year without a meal.

Bedbug bites can become itchy and red and are often seen in a line.

A West Australian man has reportedly been charged after a bomb threat forced a passenger plane bound for Perth to return to Singapore under fighter jet escort.

The Scoot budget airline flight TR16 left Singapore's Changi Airport at 4.10pm local time (7.11pm AEDT) yesterday heading for the Western Australia capital.

About 40 minutes into the flight a bomb threat was allegedly made mid-air.

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Flight tracking data showed how the Dreamliner 787 plane circled several times off the Singapore coast before heading back.

Passengers were first told this was due to a "technical issue" before an announcement was made about the bomb threat when the military escort arrived outside their window.

"A call was received that a bomb is on board our aircraft," the captain told passengers, before adding: "Please do not be alarmed as we believe it is a hoax."

The incidents had passengers fearing the worst.

"I know there was no internet up there but I just kept typing and typing and typing," Sue Nair told 9News.

"I really panicked."

Singapore Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen said in a Facebook post that two F-15SG fighter planes were scrambled to escort the Scoot flight back to Changi Airport.

The plane landed safely at about 6.30pm Singapore time (9.30pm AEDT) and the aircraft was boarded by security personnel.

One runway was closed and several incoming flights were delayed during the operation, local media reports.

READ MORE: Planned pro-Palestinian protest in Sydney changed to 'static rally'

The Australian man, aged 30, was escorted off the Scoot plane by police and reportedly charged.

Passengers described the man as being "a bit dazed" and said "he didn't speak at all" when confronted by crew and authorities.

A friend of the man said his mate had been struggling with his mental health.

"I spoke to his mum this morning, she's very distressed, very confused," the friend told 9News.

"I'm worried he's not getting the support he needs, he's got no one around him, he's an Aussie overseas."

Those on board flight TR16 finally arrived at Perth Airport around 4am, with the ordeal causing an eight-hour delay.

The airline issued an apology to passengers for the disruption to their journey, although most passengers were just happy to be home safe.

Police investigations are continuing.

9News.com.au has contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.

Readers seeking support can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 or MensLine Australia 1300 78 99 78.

In an emergency, call triple zero (000).

Three men have been charged after allegedly performing a Nazi salute outside the Sydney Jewish Museum.

The men were arrested after police were called to the museum in Darlinghurst just after midday and taken to Kings Cross Police Station.

The men, aged 30, 31, and 40, have now each been charged with behaving in an offensive manner in a public place and knowingly displaying by public act a Nazi symbol without excuse.

READ MORE: Police seek special powers for pro-Palestine rally

All three were released on conditional bail to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on October 31.

A museum spokesperson said there was no ongoing danger to any of its staff.

"At no time was anyone at the Museum in danger, and the Museum is thankful for the ongoing support of its security contractors and the local police monitoring the site at all times," the spokesperson said.

"The Sydney Jewish Museum remains a safe place for all volunteers, Holocaust survivors and visitors."

Darlinghurst Road was closed for several hours following the alleged incident but has now reopened. 

The allegations come as tensions remain high among the Jewish and Palestinian communities after the Hamas assault on Israel.

Police have sought special powers ahead of a planned pro-Palestinian rally in Hyde Park on Sunday.

The Sydney Jewish Museum was founded in 1992 by a group of migrants who survived the Holocaust.

The museum is dedicated to the memory of the six million Jewish Holocaust victims.

Less than a month before Hamas fighters blew through Israel’s high-tech "Iron Wall" and launched an attack that would leave more than 1200 Israelis dead, they practised in a very public dress rehearsal.

A slickly produced two-minute propaganda video posted to social media by Hamas on September 12 shows fighters using explosives to blast through a replica of the border gate, sweep in on pickup trucks and then move building by building through a full-scale reconstruction of an Israeli town, firing automatic weapons at human-silhouetted paper targets.

The Islamic militant group’s live-fire exercise dubbed operation “Strong Pillar” also had militants in body armour and combat fatigues carrying out operations that included the destruction of mock-ups of the wall’s concrete towers and a communications antenna, just as they would do for real in the deadly attack last Saturday.

READ MORE: Defiant protesters take to Paris streets as France bans pro-Palestine marches

'Warnings should have been picked up'

While Israel’s highly regarded security and intelligence services were clearly caught flatfooted by Hamas’ ability to breach its Gaza defences, the group appears to have hidden its extensive preparations for the deadly assault in plain sight.

"There clearly were warnings and indications that should have been picked up," Bradley Bowman, a former US Army officer who is now senior director of the Centre on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington research institute, said.

"Or maybe they were picked up, but they didn’t spark necessary preparations to prevent these horrific terrorist acts from happening."

The Associated Press reviewed and verified key details from dozens of videos Hamas released over the last year, primarily through the social media app Telegram.

Using satellite imagery, the AP matched the location of the mocked-up town to a patch of desert outside Al-Mawasi, a Palestinian town on the southern coast of the Gaza Strip.

A large sign in Hebrew and Arabic at the gate says "Horesh Yaron" – the name of a controversial Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Bowman said there are indications that Hamas intentionally led Israeli officials to believe it was preparing to carry out raids in the West Bank, rather than Gaza.

It was also potentially significant that the exercise has been held annually since 2020 in December, but was moved up by nearly four months this year to coincide with the anniversary of Israel's 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.

READ MORE: 'Enemy of civilisation': US and Israel compare Hamas to ISIS

Hamas built mock Israeli base to practice attack

In a separate video posted to Telegram from last year's Strong Pillar exercise on December 28, Hamas fighters are shown storming what appears to be a mockup Israeli military base, complete with a full-size model of a tank with an Israeli flag flying from its turret.

The gunmen move through the cinderblock buildings, seizing other men playing the roles of Israeli soldiers as hostages.

Michael Milshtein, a retired Israeli colonel who previously led the military intelligence department overseeing the Palestinian territories, said he was aware of the Hamas videos, but he was still caught off guard by the ambition and scale of Saturday’s attack.

“We knew about the drones, we knew about booby traps, we knew about cyberattacks and the marine forces… The surprise was the coordination between all those systems,” Milshtein said.

The seeds of Israel’s failure to anticipate and stop Saturday’s attack go back at least a decade. Faced with recurring attacks from Hamas militants tunnelling under Israel’s border fence, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a very concrete solution — build a bigger wall.

With financial help from US taxpayers, Israel completed construction of a $US1.1 billion project to fortify its existing defences along its 65-kilometre land border with Gaza in 2021.

The new, upgraded barrier includes a “smart fence” up to six metres high, festooned with cameras that can see in the dark, razor wire and seismic sensors capable of detecting the digging of tunnels more than 200 feet below.

Manned guard posts were replaced with concrete towers topped with remote-controlled machine guns.

“In our neighbourhood, we need to protect ourselves from wild beasts,” Netanyahu said in 2016, referring to Palestinians and neighbouring Arab states.

"At the end of the day as I see it, there will be a fence like this one surrounding Israel in its entirety.”

READ MORE: Palestinians rush to buy food as Israel readies possible invasion

Attacking on the cheap

Shortly after dawn on Saturday, Hamas fighters pushed through Netanyahu’s wall in a matter of minutes.

And they did it on the relative cheap, using explosive charges to blow holes in the barrier and then sending in bulldozers to widen the breaches as fighters streamed through on motorcycles and in pick-up trucks.

Cameras and communications gear were bombarded by off-the-shelf commercial drones adapted to drop hand grenades and mortar shells — a tactic borrowed directly from the battlefields of Ukraine.

Snipers took out Israel’s sophisticated roboguns by targeting their exposed ammunition boxes, causing them to explode.

Militants armed with assault rifles sailed over the Israeli defences slung under paragliders, providing Hamas airborne troops despite lacking aeroplanes.

Increasingly sophisticated homemade rockets, capable of striking Israel’s capital of Tel Aviv, substituted for a lack of heavy artillery.

Satellite images analysed by the AP show the massive extent of the damage done at the heavily fortified Erez border crossing between Gaza and Israel.

The images taken on Sunday and analysed on Tuesday showed gaping holes in three sections of the border wall, the largest more than 70 metres wide.

Once the wall was breached, Hamas fighters streamed through by the hundreds.

A video showed a lone Israeli battle tank rushing to the site of the attack, only to be attacked and quickly destroyed in a ball of flame.

Hamas then disabled radio towers and radar sites, likely impeding the ability of the Israeli commanders to see and understand the extent of the attack.

Hamas forces also struck a nearby army base near Zikim, engaging in an intense firefight with Israeli troops before overrunning the post.

Videos posted by Hamas show graphic scenes with dozens of dead Israeli soldiers.

They then fanned out across the countryside of Southern Israel, attacking kibbutzes and a music festival.

On the bodies of some of the Hamas militants killed during the invasion were detailed maps showing planned zones and routes of attack, according to images posted by Israeli first responders who recovered some of the corpses.

Israeli authorities announced Wednesday they had recovered the bodies of about 1500 Islamic fighters, though no details were provided about where they were found or how they died.

READ MORE: What we know about those kidnapped or killed in Israel-Hamas conflict

Did Hamas really act alone?

Military experts told the AP the attack showed a level of sophistication not previously exhibited by Hamas, likely suggesting they had external help.

“I just was impressed with Hamas’s ability to use basics and fundamentals to be able to penetrate the wall,” retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Danner, a combat engineer trained to build and breach defences.

"They seemed to be able to find those weak spots and penetrate quickly and then exploit that breach.”

Ali Barakeh, a Beirut-based senior Hamas official, acknowledged that over the years the group had received supplies, financial support, military expertise and training from its allies abroad, including Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But he insisted the recent operation to breach Israel’s border defences was homegrown, with the exact date and time for the attack known only to a handful of commanders within Hamas.

Details of the operation were kept so tight that some Hamas fighters who took part in the assault Saturday believed they were heading to just another drill, showing up in street clothes rather than their uniforms, Barakeh said.

Last weekend’s devastating surprise attack has shaken political support for Netanyahu within Israel, who pushed ahead with spending big to build walls despite some within his own cabinet and military warning that it probably wouldn’t work.

In the days since Hamas struck, senior Israeli officials have largely deflected questions about the wall and the apparent intelligence failure.

Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, the chief spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces, acknowledged the military owes the public an explanation, but said now is not the time.

“First, we fight, then we investigate,” he said.

In his push to build border walls, Netanyahu found an enthusiastic partner in then-president Donald Trump, who praised Netanyahu’s Iron Wall as a potential model for the expanded barrier he planned for the US Southern border with Mexico.

Under Trump, the US expanded a joint initiative with Israel started under the Obama Administration to develop technologies for detecting underground tunnels along the Gaza border defences.

Since 2016, Congress has appropriated $US320 million toward the project.

But even with all its high-tech gadgets, the Iron Wall was still largely just a physical barrier that could be breached, said Victor Tricaud, a senior analyst with the London-based consulting firm Control Risks.

“The fence, no matter how many sensors… no matter how deep the underground obstacles go, at the end of the day, it’s effectively a metal fence,” he said.

“Explosives, bulldozers can eventually get through it. What was remarkable was Hamas’s capability to keep all the preparations under wraps.”

One neighbour accused the other of feeding her cats.

The only Jewish primary school in the country and all synagogues are closed.

Israel's military directed the evacuation of northern Gaza, a region that is home to 1.1 million people, within 24 hours on Friday, a UN spokesman said, as Israel seeks to eradicate the Hamas militant group after its deadly attack.

The order could signal an impending ground offensive, though the Israeli military has not yet confirmed such a plan.

It said that while it was preparing, no decision has been made.

READ MORE: Tanks edge closer as threat of full-scale ground invasion looms

The order, delivered to the UN, comes as Israel presses an offensive against Hamas militants.

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric called the order “impossible” without “devastating humanitarian consequences.”

A UN official says that the United Nation is trying to get clarity from Israeli officials at the senior most political level.

"It's completely unprecedented, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Panicked rumours of an evacuation had begun to spread in north Gaza, home to almost half the population of the territory, in the early morning on Friday.

READ MORE: Trump lashes out at Netanyahu, calls Hezbollah 'very smart'

A ground offensive in Gaza, which is ruled by Hamas and where the population is densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometers long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

Hamas’ assault on Saturday and smaller attacks since have killed more than 1,300 people in Israel, including 247 soldiers — a toll unseen in Israel for decades — and the ensuing Israeli bombardment has killed more than 1,530 people in Gaza, according to authorities on both sides.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead in Gaza are Hamas members. Thousands have been wounded on both sides.

As Israel pounds Gaza from the air, Hamas militants have fired thousands of rockets into Israel.

Amid concerns that the fighting could spread in the region, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes on Thursday put two Syrian international airports out of service.

READ MORE: 'Enemy of civilisation': US and Israel compare Hamas to ISIS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush” Hamas after the militants stormed into the country’s south on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people, including killings of children in their homes and young people at a music festival.

Amid grief and demands for vengeance among the Israeli public, the government is under intense pressure to topple Hamas rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza.

The number of people forced from their homes by Israel's airstrikes soared 25% in a day, reaching 423,000 out of a population of 2.3 million, the UN said Thursday. Most crowded into UN-run schools.

Earlier, the Israeli military pulverised the Gaza Strip with airstrikes, prepared for a possible ground invasion and said its complete siege of the territory — which has left Palestinians desperate for food, fuel and medicine — would remain in place until Hamas militants free some 150 hostages taken during their grisly weekend incursion.

READ MORE: Palestinians rush to buy food as Israel readies possible invasion

A visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, along with shipments of US weapons, offered a powerful green light to Israel to drive ahead with its retaliation in Gaza after Hamas' deadly attack on civilians and soldiers, even as international aid groups warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis.

Israel has halted deliveries of basic necessities and electricity to Gaza's 2.3 million people and prevented entry of supplies from Egypt.

"Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home," Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said on social media.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces "are preparing for a ground manoeuvre" should political leaders order one.

They thought he was a Mongrel Mob member. But he was a mentally impaired man wearing red.

“[The baby] was let down by the very ministry dedicated to safeguarding her” – Coroner.

Singer-songwriter Vanessa Amorosi has emphatically denied she ever agreed to hand over full ownership of a Melbourne home to her mother.

The Narre Warren property is central to the 42-year-old's legal case against her mother Joyleen Robinson, which has gone to trial in the Victorian Supreme Court.

Amorosi claims the $650,000 used to purchase the home in 2001 came from a trust account set up to receive all of her earnings as a singer-songwriter.

READ MORE: Perth-bound passenger plane forced back to Singapore after bomb threat, Australian man arrested

She is seeking full ownership of the property, which currently has her and her mother listed as joint-owners.

Robinson claims in early 2001, Amorosi agreed to hand over full ownership of the Narre Warren home if her mother paid her $650,000 when she asked.

The mother said she gave Amorosi $710,000 for the loan to her current American home and therefore the ownership of the Narre Warren property should only be under her name.

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During cross-examination, Amorosi repeatedly denied any agreement was made.

But Robinson's barrister Daniel Harrison suggested to Amorosi she did not have a good memory and the agreement did take place.

He also put to her that she bought the Narre Warren home for her mother and she never considered it her own property.

Amorosi denied that assertion, saying it was the first home she bought for herself and she always thought of it as hers.

"My mum wanted that property from day one, no matter what," Amorosi told the court.

"She made it very clear it was her dream property."

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Harrison also suggested Amorosi had launched the legal proceedings because she was in a difficult financial situation, which Amorosi denied.

The barrister told Justice Steven Moore that Amorosi's recollections were unreliable, not from malice but simply because she had a poor memory.

Harrison said it ultimately came down to two people with very different accounts of what did or didn't happen.

Moore should see that Robinson's recollection was the only sensible one, Harrison said.

Robinson is due to give evidence in the trial on Friday afternoon.