Police have shot a 16-year-old boy dead after he stabbed a man in Perth, Australia, in an attack they said suggested terrorism.
There were signs the teen, armed with a kitchen knife, had been radicalised online, state authorities said, adding they received calls from concerned members of the Muslim community before the attack.
The attack on Saturday night, in the Perth suburb of Willetton, had “hallmarks” of terrorism but was yet to be declared a terrorist act, police said.
Local reports indicate the boy was known to police and suffered from both “mental health and radicalisation issues” and was in a deradicalisation programme.
Western Australia Premier Roger Cook said in a televised news conference that “at this stage it appears that he acted solely and alone”.
The victim, who was stabbed in the back, is stable in hospital, authorities said.
PM Anthony Albanese has said ‘there is no place for violent extremism in Australia’. Pic: AP
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the incident by police and intelligence agencies, which advised there was no ongoing threat.
“We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia,” Mr Albanese wrote on X.
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The incident comes after New South Wales police last month charged several boys with terrorism-related offences in
investigations following the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop while he was giving a live-streamed sermon in Sydney.
The attack on the bishop came only days after a deadly mass stabbing in the Sydney beachside suburb of Bondi that claimed the lives of six people.