Australian police shot and killed a boy who stabbed a man in Western Australia’s capital Perth on Sunday, in an attack that authorities say may have been a terrorist attack.
State authorities said there were signs that the 16-year-old boy, who was armed with a kitchen knife, had been radicalized online and had received calls from concerned members of the local Muslim community before the attack, which occurred late Saturday night. he added.
The attack outside Willetton had “features” of terrorism but had not yet been classified as an act, police said.
“At this stage it appears he acted alone and alone,” Western Australian Premier Roger Cook said at a televised news conference in Perth, the state capital.
The victim, who was stabbed in the back, is stable at a hospital, authorities said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the incident by police and intelligence services and was told there was no ongoing threat.
“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” Ms Albanese said on social media.
The incident comes after New South Wales Police were charged last month. several boys The stabbing death of an Assyrian Christian bishop during a livestreamed sermon in Sydney on April 15 has prompted an investigation into a terrorism-related crime.
The attack on the bishop came just days after a stabbing that left six people dead in Sydney’s seaside suburb of Bondi.
The federal government says gun and knife crime is rare in Australia, which consistently ranks it as one of the safest countries in the world.
