Sydney police respond to mass stabbings at shopping mall, church

The attacker stormed a church altar in southwest Sydney on Monday, repeatedly stabbing downward at a clergyman wearing ornate robes, video footage showed. Police in the Australian state of New South Wales took a man into custody after several people, including officers, sustained non-life-threatening injuries. The stabbing at the church came just a couple of days after six people were killed in a mass stabbing at a suburban shopping center on the east side of the city, the state police said. A responding police officer shot and killed the knife-wielding suspect after the suspect lunged at him, according to a police statement. The suspect had injured twelve other people in the shopping center attack, police said.

What was the motive for the incidents? Police identified the suspect at the shopping mall as Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old resident of the state of Queensland. Five of the six people he’s suspected of killing were women. A police official told a broadcaster in Australia that it’s possible Cauchi was targeting women.

The motive of the church attacker wasn’t immediately clear from clips of the incident pulled from the church’s livestream. The website of Christ The Good Shepherd Church describes itself as having an Assyrian orthodox tradition. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who seems to have been the first attacked there, is active on social media. The church said Emmanuel and another injured priest asked for prayers for their attacker. 

The Australian National Imams Council has condemned both attacks.