A baby girl injured in a stabbing attack at the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre has been moved out of the intensive care.
The nine-month-old child was in a serious but stable condition, a health official said. Her mother, Ashlee Good, was among the six people killed in the carnage on Saturday.
Meanwhile, police in Sydney declared the attack on a bishop at a church as an act of terrorism, as authorities call for calm in the wake of disturbance following the incident.
At least four people were injured in the attack, including Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, during a service at the Christ The Good Shepherd Church in the suburb of Wakeley in the west of the city.
A 16-year-old boy was arrested during the event, which triggered a riot outside the church. Two officers were injured with one suffering a broken jaw after he was hit with a brick and fence palings. Ten police cars were destroyed.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese urged the public not to take the law into their own hands. “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.
Father of alleged Sydney church attacker saw no signs of radicalism, community leader says
The father of a teenager arrested for the stabbing of an Assyrian bishop during a church service in Sydney saw no signs of radicalism, a community leader said on Wednesday, as police sought to charge people who attacked emergency crews after the incident.
The attack on Monday evening, which injured Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, has been deemed a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism.
Lebanese Muslim Association Secretary Gamel Kheir told Reuters the boy’s father had seen no signs of radicalism in his son.
“He said other than him being rebellious to him… there were no signs. There were absolutely no signs to him,” said Kheir, who was with the man when he left his home to take shelter in a local mosque on Monday.
Police said the family of the alleged attacker have temporarily moved out of their western Sydney home for fear of reprisals.
Tom Watling17 April 2024 10:00
What’s really to blame for the Sydney stabbings
I’m a psychologist, writes Dr Jessica Taylor – and I can tell you that attacks like these are rarely ‘random’, ‘unpredictable’, ‘unrelated’ and ‘unpreventable’. The real ‘monster’ here is misogyny
What’s really to blame for the Sydney stabbings
I’m a psychologist, writes Dr Jessica Taylor – and I can tell you that attacks like these are rarely ‘random’, ‘unpredictable’, ‘unrelated’ and ‘unpreventable’. The real ‘monster’ here is misogyny
Tom Watling17 April 2024 09:00
Frenchman who took on Sydney mall attacker offered permanent Australian residency
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese praised the Frenchman who confronted Bondi Junction attacker Joel Cauchi for his “extraordinary bravery” and said he could stay in the country for as long as he wanted.
Damien Guerot, a French construction worker, has been dubbed by some as the “Bollard Man” after CCTV footage showed him confronting Cauchi with a bollard on an escalator during the deadly stabbing attack in Westfield Bondi Junction.
Mr Albanese told reporters in Canberra: “I say this to Damien Guerot – who is dealing with his visa applications – that you are welcome here, you are welcome to stay for as long as you like.
“This is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen, although that would of course be a loss for France.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 April 2024 08:00
Father of Sydney church attacker saw ‘no signs of radicalism’
The father of the teenager who stabbed an Assyrian bishop during a church service in Sydney saw no signs of radicalism, a community leader said today.
The attack on Monday evening by the 16-year-old, which injured bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel of the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church, has been deemed a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism.
Lebanese Muslim Association secretary Gamel Kheir, who was with the boy’s father after he fled his home on Monday evening for fear of reprisals and took shelter in a local mosque, said he had seen no signs of radicalism in his son.
“He said other than him being rebellious to him… there were no signs. There were absolutely no signs to him,” Mr Kheir told Reuters.
Police said the family of the alleged attacker have temporarily moved out of their western Sydney home.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 April 2024 07:30
Watch: Bondi shop worker locks doors and tells customers to ‘get back’ amid knife attack
Bondi shop worker locks doors and tells customers to ‘get back’ amid knife attack
Footage shows terrified shop workers locking doors and telling customers to “get all the way back” as a knifeman stabbed shoppers at a Sydney shopping centre. Footage taken from inside the Westfield Bondi Junction shows terrified shop workers trying to shield shoppers from the attacker on Saturday (13 April). The 40-year-old knifeman was shot dead by a police officer at the scene. While his identity has not been confirmed, police understand he was acting alone and the incident is not terror-related. Over the course of his rampage, four women and one man were killed in the shopping centre, while another women died in hospital. Another eight people remain in hospital around Sydney.
Alexander Butler17 April 2024 07:00
Bondi Junction mall to reopen on Friday
Westfield Bondi Junction, the shopping centre in Sydney where six people were killed in a fatal stabbing last week, will reopen to shoppers on Friday.
Security will be beefed up during the mall opening and after, said Scentre Group, which operates Westfield malls in the Pacific nations.
It said the shopping centre would open on Thursday for “community reflection day” so that people could pay their respects.
“It is a day of remembrance and to pay our respects to what has happened here, and the victims of the tragedy that happened here,” Elliott Rusanow, chief executive officer of the Scentre Group, was quoted by BBC as saying.
“It is a recognition that things don’t return back to normal immediately.”
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 April 2024 06:30
Australian prime minister lays flowers outside scene of Sydney stabbings
Australian prime minister lays flowers outside scene of Sydney stabbings
Australian prime ministerAnthony Albanese lay flowers outside a shopping centre in Sydney on Sunday (14 April) following a stabbing attack which killed six people. Police have identified the assailant who stabbed six people to death at the busy Sydney shopping centre before he was fatally shot by a police officer. New South Wales Police said Joel Cauchi, 40, was responsible for the Saturday afternoon attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction. Six people – five women and one man, aged between 20 and 55 – were killed in the attack, and 12 others remain in hospital, including a 9-month-old child, whose mother died during the attack.
Alexander Butler17 April 2024 06:00
Who is bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel?
Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was stabbed during a church service live streamed from Sydney, is a social media star with followers around the world, but the bearded clergyman is also a divisive preacher.
The 53-year-old bishop, who has a popular youth following on TikTok and was awarded by YouTube in 2023 for hitting 100,000 subscribers, has been a target for criticism, hate and online trolling.
On Monday night a teenager stabbed him and other worshippers with a knife during a sermon at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in western Sydney.
Footage posted online showed the attacker criticising the bishop’s comments about Islam while pinned to the ground by the congregation. Police said on Tuesday it was a terrorist attack motivated by suspected religious extremism.
In some sermons posted online and shared widely, Mr Emmanuel questions parts of Islamic theology, although in others he stresses his love for the Muslim community and how he regularly prays for them. In a recent post he expressed support for Palestinians in Gaza.
“He’s not saying your religion is rubbish, he’s just proving them wrong and very well articulated to the point where it gets under their skin … the only way you can bring him down is through physical violence,” a 20-year-old resident told Reuters.
In other sermons Mr Emmanuel took aim at the secular world, casting doubt on Joe Biden’s election, attacking his support for gay rights and urging Donald Trump to stay true to God and resist the influence of Freemasons.
Mr Emmanuel’s popularity peaked during the Covid-19 pandemic because his sermons were online, according to the locals.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 April 2024 05:30
Woman describes how she hid from Sydney shopping centre attacker
Woman describes how she hid from Sydney mall attacker: ‘I thought I was going to die’
An eyewitness has described how she hid from a knifeman and thought she was “going to die” during a terrifying attack at a Sydney shopping centre. The woman told Sky News how she saw a man with a machete and rushed to hide in the Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday (13 April). Crying, the woman said: “It was just the worst thing ever. Who does that to people?” Police have confirmed six people have been killed and their attacker shot dead following the horrific attack. A New South Wales Police officer confronted the attacker at Westfield Bondi Junction and shot him dead as he faced her and raised a knife.
Alexander Butler17 April 2024 05:00
Australian authorities mull tougher knife laws
New South Wales authorities are considering tougher knife laws following two stabbing attacks in Sydney this past week.
“It’s a combustible situation and I’m not going to sugarcoat it,” premier Chris Minns told Sydney radio 2GB yesterday.
“We increased knife laws about six months ago after the terrible death of Steven Tougher, the NSW paramedic, but I’m not prepared to rule anything out right now
“When people are being killed, and you’ve got a situation where a knife is being used, then it would be irresponsible not to look at it,” he added.
The NSW government in June 2023 amended the Crimes Act to include the offences of carrying a knife in a public place or school and wielding a knife in a public place or school.
Alisha Rahaman Sarkar17 April 2024 04:18