Man arrested after reported stabbing at church in Sydney days after mall attack

It follows Saturday’s attack at a Sydney shopping mall

A man has been arrested after reportedly stabbing a bishop and churchgoers in Sydney, Australian police said.

No life-threatening injuries have been reported.

The attack occurred during a televised service on Monday, police said.

New South Wales police gather outside the Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney's western suburb of Wakeley (Photo by DAVID GRAY / AFP)

A video on social media shows a man dressed in black approaching a cleric man identified as the bishop at Christ the Good Shepherd in suburban Wakely and appearing to stab him repeatedly.

Members of the congregation are seen screaming and rushing to the bishop’s aid.

The church website identified the bishop as Mar Mari Emmanuel.

NSW Ambulance said paramedics had treated a man in his 50s for multiple cuts and taken him to a hospital, and three others were being treated for one or more cuts at the scene.

“A large police response is under way and the public is urged to avoid the area,” police said.

Australians are still in shock after a lone assailant stabbed six people to death in a busy Sydney shopping mall on Saturday and injured more than a dozen others.

Christ the Good Shepherd had been preparing for Palm Sunday later this month.

The bishop was featured in national news last year.

A video posted in May 2023 by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about a campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community showed the bishop in a sermon saying: “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.”