Police arrested a male teenager at the scene on Monday after the incident.
Sydney:
A knife attack during a service at an Assyrian church in Sydney was an act of terrorism motivated by suspected religious extremism, Australian police said on Tuesday.
The attack injured at least four people, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, during a service broadcast live in Sydney’s western suburb of Wakeley on Monday.
The incident led to clashes between an angry crowd and police outside the church.
Police arrested a male teenager at the scene on Monday and were forced to detain him inside the church for his own safety after a crowd gathered outside demanding the attacker be brought out.
“We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religiously motivated extremism,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said at a news conference.
The bishop, whose live-streamed sermons attract a global audience, was speaking during an evening service on Monday when a man lunged at him with a knife, video footage shows.
It was the second major stabbing attack in just three days in Australia’s most populous city, after six people were killed in a knife attack at a beachside shopping center in the Bondi region on Saturday.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
