Watch moment brave Sydney churchgoers hold down smirking ‘stabber, 15,’ who attacked Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel
SHOCKING video captured moments after a knifeman unleashed on a bishop in Sydney shows the alleged attacker grinning from ear to ear.
The teen smiled eerily at a camera as he lay pinned to the floor of a church by several brave witnesses and a police officer.
Well-known bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was stabbed on Monday night, about 7pm local time, as he preached to his congregation at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.
At least four people were stabbed in the sudden knife attack.
It was the second mass stabbing to hit Sydney in just 48 hours, after 40-year-old Joel Cauchi carried out a senseless rampage at a Bondi Junction shopping centre and killed six people.
A YouTube livestream of the bishop’s service showed him speaking from the alter, when a teen dressed in a dark hoodie approached him.
The teenager calmly walked up to the elderly church leader then suddenly lunged at him, raising a hand which appeared to hold a knife and stabbing furiously at the bishop.
He appeared to be aiming for the clergyman’s chest and neck.
The bishop tumbled to the ground, dragging the lectern down with him, as brave churchgoers leapt from their seats and piled on top of the alleged attacker.
Others made urgent calls to emergency services.
New footage showed the teenager smiling at a camera as he lay facedown under the weight of churchgoers – beside a man whose jeans were stained with blood.
He is said to have been detained on the floor before cops swooped in and arrested him and is now being treated for wounds to his hands.
Bishop Emmanuel – who has a huge following on social media – was reportedly stabbed multiple times and rushed to hospital.
Footage showed him being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher as a large crowd of furious bystanders gathered outside the church.
Angry Sydneysiders chanted “an eye for an eye” and “bring him out” as riot police descended on the scene.
The angry crowd also reportedly called to “cut off the fingers” of the suspect, shouting for his surrender as he was locked inside the building for safety.
Two police officers were reportedly injured in the swarm of over 5,000 people outside of the church.
New South Wales police later said the suspect had been “removed from the church and taken to an undisclosed location”.
Cops said “a number of people were stabbed” at the church, as paramedics confirmed a man in his 50s was taken to hospital with stab wounds.
Three others were treated at the scene, including a man in his 30s and two others with lacerations to the arm and hand.
Sydney’s Liverpool Hospital – where Bishop Emmanuel is reportedly in a stable condition – was said to be in lockdown.
Officers arrested “a male” who was “assisting police with inquiries”.