Sydney Church Leader Attacked

A 16-year-old boy is under police guard after what appears to be a religiously motivated knife attack at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in the suburb of Wakeleya in western Sydney, which has hospitalised Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel. The Bishop was wounded in the head by a black-clad figure while conducting a live-streamed sermon on Monday (April 15) evening. A senior priest suffered cuts and a shoulder injury while trying to intervene. This incident is being treated as a terrorist act which gives the police extra powers to investigate the attack. This is the second stabbing in Sydney to take place in three days. Six people were killed and more than a dozen injured at the Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre in Sydney’s east. The perpetrator who was a Queenslander with a history of mental illness was fatally shot at the scene.

The Australian Associated Press (AAP) reports the Commissioner explained that the teenager allegedly planned the attack, travelling from a home that was not near the church and making comments indicating a religious motive before lunging at the bishop and assaulting the priest. 

Video of the incident showed a person dressed in black attacking the bishop with what appeared to be a flick knife at the altar as parishioners ran to his aid. The teenager, who was arrested at the scene, was on a good behaviour bond for a previous knife crime, but was not on a terror watch list, Commissioner Webb revealed.

Below is the Official Press Release from Christ the Good Shepherd Church