15-year-old boy has been arrested after stabbing a bishop and churchgoers during a sermon at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the suburb of Wakeley, Sydney on Monday evening.
An unverified video circulating on social media showed a man in black clothing walking toward a bishop at an altar before appearing to stab him repeatedly.
People can be seen screaming and rushing toward the man following the attack, CBS News reported.
Police said at least four people were stabbed but none have life-threatning injuries.
Witnesses said the people gathered were demanding for the attacker to be brought outside.
Police said they had responded in numbers to the incident and urged the public to keep away from the area.
The teen was taken to safe place and and was being treated for wounds to his hand, New South Wales acting assistant police commissioner Andrew Holland said.
The bishop attacked was identified on Church’s website as Mar Mari Emmanuel by May 2023 Australian TV report.
Ordained by the Assyrian Orthodox Church in 2011, he is seen as a popular and controversial figure after he has had a turbulent relationship with the Assyrian Church, reportedly being suspended for disobeying canons and forming a breakaway church.
In 2021, Mar Mari Emmanuel described lockdowns in Australia as slavery and arguing that vaccines were futile, hence, becoming a vocal opponent of Covid-19 restrictions.
He has been also featured in national news when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation was reporting about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
He was saying in sermon that “when a man calls himself a woman, he is neither a man nor a woman, you are not a human, then you are an it. Now, since you are an it, I will not address you as a human anymore because it is not my choosing, it your choosing.”
The attacked victims are all men aged between 20 and 70 but the reason remains unknown.
This comes after six people were killed at shopping mall in Sydney, the suspect was shot and dead but there’s no suggestions of linking both incidents.