Australian police have arrested a 15-year-old boy on suspicion of being behind a church attack that left several people injured in Sydney.
Two days after the fatal attack in a Sydney shopping center, the Australian city was once again hit by a knife attack. This Monday, April 15, a bishop was stabbed in The Good Shepherd Church chapel. A number of people rushed to help and subdue the attacker. The scene was filmed and broadcast live on the YouTube channel of an Assyrian church which was broadcasting its mass live. Alerted to a stabbing, Australian police quickly went to the western suburbs of the Australian city. She reported four injured men.
The victims suffered “non-life threatening injuries”, the police also said, indicating that they had been treated by rescuers. According to emergency services, the victims were aged between 20 and 70 years old. According to SkyNews, the stabbed clergyman is Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel who was preaching on Monday. He is part of the small Assyrian Christian community who fled the wars in Iraq and Syria.
Police provided initial information during a press conference regarding the suspect. According to Deputy Commissioner Andrew Holland, he was a 15-year-old boy, who was subdued by the faithful when the police arrived. The boy was taken into custody before being transported to a hospital for treatment of serious hand injuries. According to the first elements of the investigation, the suspect did not regularly attend church, is known to the police and asked to speak to his parents. The attacker’s motives are, however, still unknown.
Another knife attack left six dead and several injured in Sydney on Saturday April 13. It was carried out in a shopping center by a 40-year-old man with mental illness, with nothing to suggest a possible terrorist motive, according to Australian police.
