Australian police arrest 14-year-old boy suspected of stabbing student at University of Sydney

MELBOURNE, Australia – A 14-year-old boy dressed in military fatigues was arrested after police said he stabbed a 22-year-old student in the neck at the University of Sydney on Tuesday.

The student was taken to hospital in a stable condition. The suspect was treated for cuts and kept for a psychiatric evaluation, said New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Mark Walton.

“The motive and ideology have not yet been determined,” Walton told reporters. The New South Wales Joint Anti-Terrorism Committee was investigating the case, but there was no ongoing threat to the community, Walton said.

“The ideology that may be associated with this young person’s activity is unknown, but I would say it is likely to be a mixed and unclear ideology. It is certainly not a religious ideology,” Walton added.

Walton said the boy was wearing a “camouflaged defense uniform” and left a kitchen knife at the scene.

Investigators found no connection between the university attack and a 16-year-old boy who was charged with committing a terrorist act. On April 15, he stabbed a bishop in Sydney while a church service was streamed online. Several of his teenage companions were charged with various offences, including conspiracy or planning a terrorist act.

The stabbing on Tuesday triggered a major police operation and a lockdown of the buildings of Australia’s oldest university.

The police operation has now ended and all areas of the campus are now accessible, the university said in a statement.

“The safety and well-being of our students, staff and community members is our priority and we continue to work with authorities,” the statement said.