A man was arrested in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia after reportedly stabbing a Christian bishop and several others inside a church, Australian police said Monday.
New South Wales Police said officers were deployed to an address in the town of Wakeley, “following reports a number of people were stabbed.”
“Officers arrested a male and he is assisting police with inquiries. The injured people suffered non-life threatening injuries and are being treated by NSW Ambulance paramedics,” a police statement shared with CBS News said.
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.
Reuters/Christ The Good Shepherd Church
Christ The Good Shepherd Church, an Assyrian Christian church, has an address that matches the location described by police in their statement.
News of the attack emerged Monday with Australia still reeling from a devastating attack on Saturday when an assailant stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center before being fatally shot by a police officer. Saturday’s attacker appears to have targeted women, police said, according to CBS News’ partner network BBC News.
The bishop for the church, which streams its services live online, was featured in national news last year, according to The Associated Press, when the Australian Broadcasting Corporation featured it in a report about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
Staff/REUTERS
The May 2023 Australian TV report showed the bishop, identified on the church’s website as Mar Mari Emmanuel, saying in a 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.”