SYDNEY: A knife attack during a service at an Assyrian church in Sydney was a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism, Australian police said on Tuesday (Apr 16).
At least four people were wounded in the attack, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd Church, during a livestreamed service in the western Sydney suburb of Wakeley on Monday.
The incident triggered clashes outside the church between police and more than 500 of the bishop’s followers who demanded the attacker be handed over to them.
Police arrested a 16-year-old male suspect at the scene on Monday and were forced to hold him at the church for his own safety as the crowd of worshippers gathered outside.
“We believe there are elements that are satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism,” New South Wales state Police Commissioner Karen Webb said during a press conference.
“After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident.”
Police said there was “a degree of premeditation” as the attacker travelled to the church, far from his home, with a knife. But Webb said police at this early stage of the investigation believe the attacker was acting alone.
The head of Australia’s leading spy agency also said that the suspect appeared to have acted alone and there was no immediate need to raise the country’s terror threat level.
“At this stage, it looks like the actions of an individual,” Australian Security Intelligence Organisation head Mike Burgess said in rare public comments.
“At this point, there is no indication of anyone else involved, but that remains an open investigation.”
Emergency crews said they attended around 30 people after the clash outside the church, and seven were taken to hospitals with injuries. Several police were hospitalised with injuries and 20 police vehicles were damaged, Webb said.
The teen is now being held at an undisclosed location and is believed to have also sustained knife injuries. Authorities had originally given the suspect’s age as 15.
An AFP journalist at the scene late on Monday saw projectiles being hurled before police with riot shields and body armour eventually pushed the protesters away from the church.
Twenty police vehicles and some houses were damaged as the protesters threw bottles, bricks and other items.
One officer was “hit with a metal object and sustained a twisted knee and a chipped tooth”, police said.
“Another constable sustained a broken jaw after he was hit with a brick and a fence paling”.
Calm was eventually restored, but more officers were deployed to the neighbourhood to protect local religious buildings.
New South Wales state Premier Chris Minns urged people to not take the law into their hands.
“You will be met by the full force of the law if there’s any attempt for tit-for-tat violence in Sydney over the coming days,” Minns told reporters.
Minns also issued a joint statement with Christian and Muslim leaders calling for calm.
“We’re calling on everyone to act with kindness and respect for each other,” the statement said. “Now is the time to show that we are strong and united.”
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 mall in the Bondi area on Saturday.
Bishop Emmanuel, whose livestreamed sermons attract a global audience, was speaking during an evening service at his church when an individual lunged at him with a knife, according to video footage.
Clips of the bishop’s sermons rack up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and TikTok. He became well known for his hardline views during the pandemic when he described COVID-19 lockdowns as “mass slavery”, media reported at the time.
The suburb of Wakeley is a hub for Sydney’s small Christian Assyrian community, many of whom fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria.
Assyrians trace their roots to an empire that ruled a swath of the ancient Middle East.
Since that age of empire, they have faced persecution as a religious and ethnic minority distinct from the region’s Arab and Muslim majorities.
There have also been schisms within the local Assyrian community over the teachings of Bishop Emmanuel.
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