Sydney church stabbing: police treating as terrorist attack the alleged stabbing of bishop during livestreamed mass

Anthony Albanese has pleaded for unity following a terror attack at a western Sydney church where a bishop and priests were stabbed, and a subsequent riot in which police officers were attacked.

The prime minister held a joint press conference with police and security chiefs in Canberra on Tuesday morning, hours after New South Wales declared as a terrorist attack the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel at a mass at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley just after 7pm on Monday.

A live stream of the mass on the church’s website showed a person approaching the altar who then appeared to stab toward the bishop’s head multiple times. Three other people were also injured in the alleged attack.

The congregation then swarmed forward, with a scuffle ensuing between the worshippers and the attacker. Police arrested a 16-year-old and were forced to hold him at the church for his own safety as a large crowd of several hundred people gathered outside the church. Riot police were called in to forcibly move the crowd on after police cars were smashed.

“This is a disturbing incident. There is no place for violence in our community. There’s no place for violent extremism. We’re a peace-loving nation. This is a time to unite, not divide, as a community, and as a country,” Albanese said, expressing his sympathies to the Assyrian community in western Sydney.

“We have overwhelmingly a harmonious society in Australia. In my local community, people of different faith live side by side. And that is overwhelmingly the experience of Australians. It is vital in my view that we continue to stress what unites us, and that respect for each other be maintained at all times.”

Albanese declined to state the religion of the attacker, but the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) chief, Mike Burgess, at the joint press conference with the prime minister, said he was aware of video of the alleged offender speaking in Arabic.

“If he [the bishop] didn’t get himself involved in my religion, if he hadn’t spoken about my Prophet, I wouldn’t have come here … if he just spoke about his own religion, I wouldn’t have come,” the alleged attacker can be heard saying in the video.

The video reportedly shows the mayhem that followed the attack, with people in bloodied clothes walking around as the alleged attacker is held against the ground.

Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who has a popular online presence, has previously criticised Islam and the Prophet Muhammad in public sermons.

On the declaration of the event as a terrorist attack, Burgess said: “To call it a terrorist act, you need indications of information or evidence that suggest actually the motivation was religiously motivated or ideologically motivated.”

“In the case of Saturday [the stabbing at Bondi Junction], that was not the case. In this case, the information we have and the police have before us indicates that is strongly the case. That is why it was called an act of terrorism,” Burgess said.
He said that despite the declaration of a terrorist attack, the current terror level threat for Australia – at “possible” – would not be raised. “One incident like this does not change the threat level but we keep it under review.”

Burgess said that while there were no indications of others connected to the attacker, Asio was investigating to determine there were no further threats.

The Australian federal police commissioner, Reece Kershaw, also at the joint press conference, called the subsequent commotion “a disgraceful act from the community who attacked police at that scene.”

“My support goes to the New South Wales police commissioner and the New South Wales police officers who were there to protect the community,” he said.

“It was really un-Australian to see that happen last night,” Kershaw said.

The NSW premier, Chris Minns, said the decision to make the terror declaration was taken early on Tuesday morning and validated by the police minister.

The NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, said a strike force had been established to investigate the incident.

“This is a major and serious criminal investigation,” Minns said on Tuesday.

“It is crucial that New South Wales police are able to devote their resources and intelligence as well as officers to the investigation of this crime.”

Webb said that after the stabbing a crowd of people then “converged on that area and began to turn on police”. Police estimate the crowd grew from 50 people to approximately 500.

“People used what was available to them in the area, including bricks, concrete palings, to assault police, and throw missiles at police and police equipment, and police vehicles.”

Some police officers were injured and taken to hospital overnight, while 20 police vehicles were damaged and 10 rendered unusable, Webb said.

“That is unacceptable and those that were involved in that riot can expect a knock at the door. It might not be today. It might not be tomorrow. But we’ll find you and we’ll come and arrest you. That is totally unacceptable.”

Dominic Morgan, commissioner for NSW Ambulance, said 30 patients had been assessed and treated overnight, with seven taken to hospital, around 20 of them having been affected by capsicum spray.

The bishop and the priest, who were stabbed, were in surgery on Tuesday morning.

Paramedics had come “directly under threat” and had to retreat into the church during the riot, with six of them stuck in the church for three and a half hours, Morgan said.

The decision to designate the stabbing incident a terrorist attack was made in the early hours of Tuesday morning, Minns said, validated by the police minister at 1.45am and the premier himself notified at 2am.

Webb said the legislative definition of a terrorist act was satisfied in that police believed the act was religious-motivated extremism and involved intimidation of the public through that act – partly due to the fact that the service was being livestreamed.

The alleged offender had not previously been on any terror watch list.

A joint counter-terrorism team were investigating, including members of the Australian federal police, Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (Asio) and New South Wales police.

Earlier on Tuesday, Albanese described the Wakeley incident as “very distressing” and “extremely concerning”.

“It’s a really good idea if politicians don’t lead this information disclosure,” he told ABC Melbourne. “It’s a really good idea if police and authorities do, when things are confirmed.

“There’s been a declaration of a terror incident, which means it is ideologically motivated.”

Albanese warned it is “completely not acceptable” to damage or impede police vehicles, as occurred after the incident.

A separate strike force, called Dribs, had been established to investigate the riot, and additional police would be patrolling Sydney in response.

The incident comes just days after another man, Joel Cauchi, killed six people and injured others, some critically, in a stabbing spree at a Westfield shopping centre in the Sydney suburb of Bondi Junction. Investigators do not believe Cauchi’s attack was terrorism related.

Minns called for community calm on Tuesday.

“I understand, coming just days after the criminal activities in Bondi Junction, Sydney and New South Wales is on edge and there’s understandable community anxiety at the moment. However, it’s crucially important the police are able to conduct their inquiries and finish their investigation,” Minns said.

Minns said any further violence would be diverting resources away from the investigation of the incident.

“I want to make something very, very clear – there’s no such thing in Australia as taking the law into your own hands. It doesn’t exist. That’s for several reasons. Firstly, you will be met by the full force of the law, if there’s any attempt for tit-for-tat violence in Sydney over the coming days.

“Lastly and perhaps most importantly, every religious leader representing communities across Western Sydney has expressly said don’t do it, and implored the community to come together to express faith and hope in the New South Wales police, and ensure that we remain united during these difficult days.”