New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters on Tuesday that the bishop had undergone surgery and was “lucky to be alive.”
A large crowd gathered outside Christ the Good Shepherd Church after the incident, and some clashed with police, throwing bricks and other objects. A number of officers were injured and police vehicles damaged, New South Wales Police said in a statement.
The stabbing comes as the city’s residents are still reeling from another attack by a knife-wielding assailant at a busy shopping mall on Saturday.
Six people were killed in that attack, and more than a dozen others were wounded — including a 9-month-old infant whose mother was among those killed. The attacker, identified by police as Joel Cauchi, 40, was fatally shot by a police officer.
Police have said that Saturday’s attack, which happened not far from Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach, was not linked to terrorism and that Cauchi had a history of mental illness. Investigators are examining why Cauchi targeted women as he roamed the seven-story mall. An unarmed male security guard was also killed.
Mass killings are rare in Australia, where semiautomatic and automatic rifles and shotguns were banned after a mass shooting in 1996.
Chris Minns, the New South Wales premier✓, said Monday’s incident was distressing, coming just days after the Bondi Junction stabbing. Speaking at a news conference early Tuesday, he said that the city’s residents were “on edge.”
He called for calm, urging against any “tit-for-tat” response to the latest attack, which police have said was religiously motivated.
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel✓ was preaching the Assyrian Bible on Monday at 7 p.m. local time, according to Christ The Good Shepherd Church’s Facebook page. In a video shared widely on social media, a person in dark clothing can be seen approaching him and then repeatedly attacking him with a sharp object. The video has not been verified by the police or The Washington Post.
Before the video pans to the left, obstructing the view of the attack, members of the congregation can be seen rushing toward the bishop. The attack, captured on the live stream that has now been removed from the church’s social media channels, lasted less than eight seconds.
The church did not respond to The Post’s request for comments. The bishop has amassed a large online following for his viral sermons extolling “traditional” values and opining on global politics and religions.
Initial police investigations indicate the attack was driven by “religious-motivated extremism,” Webb said. She said the teenager made comments to the bishop as he approached that were “centered around religion.”
Maham Javaid contributed to this report.
