Sydney, Australia—Australian police arrested a 14-year-old boy Tuesday after a non-fatal stabbing sent a university campus into lockdown and are investigating whether the teen was motivated by extremist ideologies.
Police said the teen was wearing a camouflage military uniform when he allegedly stabbed a 22-year-old University of Sydney student in the neck with a kitchen knife.
“A motive or ideology has not been determined at this time,” said New South Wales assistant police commissioner Mark Walton, adding that there was no ongoing threat.
“The ideology that may be related to this young person’s activity is unknown.
“But I would say it’s likely to be categorized as a mixed and unclear ideology. It’s certainly not a religiously related ideology.”
Detectives said they were looking into whether the teen had been radicalized by other extremist doctrines.
The 14-year-old was arrested after showing up at a nearby hospital to be treated for cuts to his hand, police said.
He has been sent for a mental health assessment, police said, and had previously come into contact with the authorities.
The 22-year-old victim was treated in hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Six people were killed by a knife-wielding assailant inside Sydney’s busy Bondi Junction shopping center in April.
In an unrelated incident two days later, an Assyrian Christian bishop was stabbed while livestreaming an evening church sermon in western Sydney.
A 16-year-old suspect was later charged with committing a “terrorist act.”
