Police report that the man injured in the attack is in a ‘serious’ but stable condition

In the western Australian suburb of Perth, a 16-year-old teenager was killed by police after injuring someone in a knife attack, the head of the local government and police authorities reported on Sunday 5 May. The evening before, police had received an anonymous call reporting violent intentions without specifying identity or location, explained the Chief Constable of the State Police of Western Australia, Col Blanch.

Shortly afterwards, an emergency call alerted police that a knife-wielding individual was on the loose in a car park in Willetton, a southern suburb of Perth. During the attack, the teenager injured a middle-aged man, who is currently in a serious but stable condition.

Police intervention was necessary and, according to footage taken from a camera worn by an officer, the suspect refused to relinquish his weapon as requested by the police, said Col Blanch. Despite the use of two tasers, these measures did not have the desired effect. The individual continued to advance towards an armed officer who fired a fatal shot, seriously injuring the teenager who died in hospital later that night.

‘It appears he acted alone,’ Western Australian Premier Roger Cook told a news conference, adding that the teenager appeared to have been radicalised online. The police chief confirmed that the youngster had a history of mental health problems and online radicalisation, although he had been involved in a violence and extremism prevention programme. The attack comes shortly after an Assyrian church bishop was stabbed during a live broadcast sermon in Sydney, an act for which a 16-year-old has been charged with a ‘terrorist act’.