Monday a man he stabbed four people, including a bishop who was giving a sermon, during a religious service in a church near Sydney, Australia. Australian police have arrested a man believed to be the perpetrator. None of the injured people were in danger of dying. The celebration was broadcast live on the church’s social media channels.
The stabbing occurred in Christ the good shepherd church in Wakeley, in the western suburbs of Sydney, which is part of the Assyrian Church of the East, a denomination of Christianity spread mainly in the Middle East and in countries where there are many people from there, including in Australia. The stabbed bishop, Mar Mari Emmanuel, is the head of a particularly conservative branch of the Church.
In the hours following the attack, a large crowd of angry people formed in front of the church. Many police officers in riot gear were deployed in the area: some policemen were injured by objects thrown by the demonstrators. According to Sydney Morning Herald some of them believed that the arrested man was still inside the church and wanted to prevent him from going out and receiving medical treatment.
On Saturday, two days before the Wakeley church stabbing, a man killed six people by stabbing them in a busy shopping center in Bondi, eastern Sydney. The two facts do not appear to be connected.
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