Australian police yesterday said a brutal knife attack during a live-streamed church service was a religiously motivated “terrorist” act, as they urged calm from the angered local community.
Two people were stabbed when a 16-year-old suspect rushed the dais at an Assyrian Christian church in western Sydney late on Monday, slashing wildly at the bishop who was giving a sermon.
The bishop was stabbed in the head and chest and taken to a hospital. The attacker was immediately subdued by outraged congregants and later taken into police custody. He was “known to police,” but was not on any terror watchlists, senior officers said.
Photo: Reuters
“After consideration of all the material, I declared that it was a terrorist incident,” New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told a news conference.
Webb said the attack was deemed an act of religiously motivated “extremism” that intimidated the public, adding that the victims were “lucky to be alive.”
The head of Australia’s leading spy agency 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 Director-General Mike Burgess said in rare public comments.
Three other people were treated for non-stab wounds sustained as a result of the attack and about 30 more were treated after a riot that ensued outside the church.
For three hours, more than 500 protesters clashed with a phalanx of riot police who battled to prevent them from re-entering the church and lynching the teen.
He is being held at an undisclosed location and is believed to have also sustained knife injuries. Authorities had originally given the his age as 15.
An Agence France-Presse journalist at the scene late on Monday saw projectiles being hurled before police with riot shields and body armor 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 neighborhood to protect local religious buildings.
The church said in a statement yesterday that the victim, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, was in a stable condition and “improving.”
KEY INDUSTRY: The vice premier discussed a plan to create a non-red drone supply chain by next year, which has been allocated a budget of more than NT$7.2 billion The government has budgeted NT$44.2 billion (US$1.38 billion) to cultivate Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) industry over the next five years, which would make the nation a major player in the industry’s democratic supply chain in the Asia-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Cho made the remarks during a visit to the facilities of Cub Elecparts Inc (為升電裝). Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Su-yueh (陳素月) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hsieh Yi-fong (謝依鳳) also participated in the trip. Cub Elecparts has transitioned from the automotive industry to the defense industry, which is the top priority among the nation’s
SOUTH KOREA DISPUTE: If Seoul continues to ignore its request, Taiwan would change South Korea’s designation on its arrival cards, the foreign ministry said If South Korea does not reply appropriately to a request to correct Taiwan’s name on its e-Arrival card system before March 31, the government would take corresponding measures to change how South Korea is labeled on the online Taiwan Arrival Card system, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. South Korea’s e-Arrival card system lists Taiwan as “China (Taiwan)” in the “point of departure” and “next destination” fields. Taipei has asked Seoul to change the wording. Since March 1, South Koreans who hold government-issued Alien Resident Certificates (ARC) have been identified as from “South Korea” rather than the “Republic of Korea,” the
SUFFICIENT: The president said Taiwan has enough oil for next month, with reserves covering more than 100 days and natural gas enough for 12 to 14 days A restart plan for the Guosheng Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County’s Hengchun Township (恆春) would be submitted to the Nuclear Safety Commission by the end of the month, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, reversing the government’s policy to abolish nuclear energy. On May 17 last year, Taiwan shut down its last nuclear reactor and became the first non-nuclear nation in East Asia, fulfilling the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government’s pledge of a “nuclear-free homeland.” Even without nuclear power, Taiwan can maintain a stable electricity supply until 2032,
DEROGATORY: WTO host Cameroon’s designation of Taiwan as a ‘province of China’ seriously undermines the nation’s status and rights as a WTO member, MOFA said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned Cameroon for listing Taiwan as “Taiwan, Province of China” in visa documents for an upcoming WTO ministerial conference, a move that led to Taiwan’s withdrawal from the event. The designation “seriously undermined” Taiwan’s status and rights as a WTO member, the ministry said in a statement. It is the first time since 2001 that Taiwan has declined to attend a WTO Ministerial Conference. The conference is scheduled to take place from Thursday to Sunday next week in Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon. Taiwan had planned to send a delegation led by Minister Without Portfolio
RSS