Stabbing of Bishop in Australia During Livestreamed Service Was Act of Terror, Police Say

A stabbing at a church in a suburb of Sydney, Australia, that left several people injured and unfolded during a livestreamed Mass was an act of terrorism, the authorities said on Tuesday.

A 15-year-old boy was arrested after the Monday evening stabbing at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley, Australia, which left multiple people injured, including the church’s bishop and priest, who both sustained serious but non-life-threatening injuries, the New South Wales Police said. The attack came just two days after an unrelated deadly stabbing rampage at a crowded mall across town, rattling a city and country where such acts of violence are rare.

Karen Webb, police commissioner for New South Wales, said at a news conference on Tuesday that she had made the terrorism determination based on information that the attacker had gone to the church armed with a knife, showing “a degree of premeditation,” and religious comments he made while carrying out the attack seen on the livestream.

While she did not specify what those comments were, she said, “We believe there were elements satisfied in terms of religious motivated extremism.” By carrying out the attack during the livestream, she said, the attacker had intimidated “not only the parishioners in attendance but those parishioners who were watching online.”

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was seriously injured during the attack, is part of an ultraconservative sect of the Assyrian Orthodox church. He is known to livestream his sermons online. During the pandemic, he opposed lockdowns and preached against Covid vaccinations. He has also often condemned L.G.B.T.Q. people.

The bishop and a priest were in surgery Tuesday morning, and are “lucky to be alive,” Ms. Webb said.