A member of the New South Wales law enforcement team working at the scene of an alleged stabbing at the University of Sydney in Australia, on July 2. - Reuters
SYDNEY: Australian police announced the arrest of a 14-year-old boy following a stabbing at the University of Sydney on July 2.
Emergency staff attended to a 22-year-old man, who was taken to hospital in serious but stable condition, according to a statement from New South Wales state police.
The authorities confirmed there is no ongoing threat to the community.
A spokesperson for the University of Sydney reported that a police operation was under way on the Camperdown campus, with police remaining on-site for investigations, Reuters reported.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, numerous police cars and ambulances quickly arrived at Western Avenue, which cuts through the centre of the campus, following reports of the stabbing incident on the morning of July 2.
Several university buildings were placed on lockdown as police established the crime scene.
Police were informed that the 14-year-old boy had left the scene and boarded a bus in Parramatta Road.
They later located him near Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, where he was taken into custody.
A spokesperson for the New South Wales Police told The Sydney Morning Herald that the teenager and the alleged victim were strangers to one another.
Knife crime has been in the spotlight in Australia in 2024.
A stabbing spree in a Sydney mall on April 13 left six people dead. The suspect in the mall attack was shot and killed by a female police officer.
Just days after the mall incident, on April 15, a knife attack at a Sydney church left at least four people, including a bishop, wounded.
A 16-year-old boy was charged with a terrorism offence for the knifing of Assyrian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel during a live-streamed church service that day. An Australian counter-terrorism team arrested seven teenagers on April 24 who were linked to him.
Weeks later, on May 5, the police shot dead a teenager who had reportedly stabbed a member of the public in Perth.
The series of stabbing incidents prompted the New South Wales government to announce new measures to “get knives off the street and boost community safety” in May 2024.
In a statement on May 7, the officials introduced “reforms to target possession of knives, particularly among young people (to) reduce knife crime” such as granting the police the authority to perform checks on people for knives without a warrant in designated areas. - The Straits Times/ANN
