Sydney church stabbing a ‘terrorist’ attack say police as teen suspect detained

Police are standing guard around mosques in parts of Sydney after reports that text messages were circulating urging the Assyrian Christian community to retaliate against Muslims.

It follows the attack on Christian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel while giving a sermon at Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley in west Sydney.

Video of the incident spread quickly on social media and an angry mob converged on the church demanding vengeance.

The church said in a statement on Tuesday it “denounced retaliation of any kind”.

Bishop Emmanuel has a strong social media following and has spoken out on a range of issues, including the plight of Palestinians in Gaza.

Community leaders are calling for calm after a teenager was accused of wounding a Christian bishop and priest during a church service in a second high-profile knife attack to rock Sydney in recent days.

The 16-year-old was overpowered by the shocked congregation at Christ the Good Shepherd Church after he allegedly stabbed Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel and Fr Isaac Royel during a service on Monday that was being streamed online.

Video of the attack spread quickly on social media and an angrycrowd clased with police outside the church.

They hurled bricks, bottles and fence boards at police, who temporarily barricaded the boy inside the church for his own safety. Several people including police officers required hospital treatment following the hours-long riot.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged the public not to take the law into their own hands.

“We understand the distress and concerns that are there in the community, particularly after the tragic event at Bondi Junction on Saturday,” Mr Albanese told reporters, referring to the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping mall.

“But it is not acceptable to impede police and injure police doing their duty or to damage police vehicles in a way that we saw last night,” he added.

Following Monday’s attack on a Bishop Mar Mari Emmanue at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Sydney, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization, the nation’s main domestic spy agency, and Australian Federal Police have joined state police in a counter-terrorism task force to investgate who else could be involved.

ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said the investigation had yet to uncover any associated threats.

“It does appear to be religiously motivated, but we continue our lines of investigation,” Burgess said.

“Our job is to look at individuals connected with the attacker to assure ourselves that there is no-one else in the community with similar intent. At this stage, we have no indications of that,” Burgess added.

On ASIO’s advice, the risk of a terrorist attack in Australia is rated at “possible.” That is the second lowest level after “not expected” on the five-tier National Terrorism Threat Advisory System.