DAVID GRAY / AFP
Police around the church where the attack took place in Sydney on April 15, 2024.
INTERNATIONAL – The motive is known. The knife attack that left four people injured on Monday in a church in Sydney, Australia, is a “terrorist act”concluded this Tuesday, April 16, the police, who arrested a 15-year-old teenager.
The bishop and the young suspect are among those taken into custody for “injuries which are not life-threatening”, after this attack Monday evening during a sermon broadcast live in an Assyrian church in the city. Their days are not in danger.
According to a live broadcast of the religious service, the young man dressed in black approached the altar, raised his right arm and hit Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel with a knife, causing panic and screams among those in attendance. faithful.
A number of people rushed to help, according to the footage, and subdue the attacker. Emergency services told AFP that four men aged between 20 and 70 were being treated, notably for lacerations.
The crowd wanted to fight
AFP identified the location from the video as the Church of Christ the Good Shepherd, in Wakeley, in the western suburbs of Sydney. The neighborhood is known for welcoming members of the small Assyrian Christian community who fled persecution and war in Iraq and Syria. This church hosts a religious service on Monday evenings.
Police said they began receiving calls “ around 7:10 p.m. », and then called on the public to avoid this area. Nevertheless, hundreds of people, apparently members of this community, tried to reach the church after the incident to find the attacker, encountering police cordons.
An AFP journalist saw projectiles thrown, before the police, equipped with shields, pushed back the crowd. The suspect “ was taken from the church and taken in an undisclosed direction”said the police, asking to evacuate the area.
At least two police officers were hospitalized and vehicles were damaged when the crowd shouted “ bottles, bricks and other objects »according to police.
Call for calm
The head of the New South Wales government, Chris Minns, appealed for calm in a joint statement with Christian and Muslim authorities. “We call on everyone to act with kindness and respect for others”, they wrote. “ Now is the time to show that we are strong and united”.
On Saturday, a previous knife attack left six dead and several injured in Sydney. It was carried out in a shopping center by a 40-year-old man suffering from mental illness, with nothing suggesting a terrorist motive, according to Australian police.
Five of the six victims killed by Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old mentally ill man, are women, as are most of those injured. The attacker was shot dead.
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