Sydney has been rocked by two stabbing incidents back-to-back.
The U.S. Embassy and consulates in Australia have issued a notice for citizens to “remain vigilant” after the stabbing spree that occurred in Sydney on April 13.
“As this incident showed, dangerous events can occur in the most unexpected of areas,” the U.S. Embassy said.
“Visitors to congested and popular tourist areas should pay particular attention to their surroundings and always follow the instructions of police and emergency response officials.”
It further advised U.S. citizens to avoid areas holding demonstrations or have increased police activity, practice situational awareness, and stay alert.
The attacker appeared to target women, killing five females and one man, as well as injuring 12 others.
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Among the victims was a new mother, Ashlee Good, and her baby girl, who was also stabbed but is now recovering.
Another victim was bride-to-be, Dawn Singleton, daughter of successful businessman John Singleton. She was to be married to her long-time sweetheart, a police officer, who happened to be on duty as one of the responding officers on the day.
The knife attacker was finally stopped by Officer Amy Scott, who confronted Mr. Cauchi alone, shouting at him to put his knife down.
Instead, Mr. Cauchi lunged at her, resulting in Ms. Scott shooting him once in the chest, and then attempting to perform CPR on him.
Police have reiterated multiple times that there appeared to be no ideological motivations involved, noting Mr. Cauchi had a long history of mental illness.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia’s “strong gun laws” potentially prevented even more deaths from happening.
“But if it was an automatic gun, then we would have been speaking about hundreds of deaths.”
Just two days after the Bondi stabbings, a 16-year-old boy was seen allegedly stabbing an Assyrian Christian church leader during a live-streamed sermon.
Orthodox Christian Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was conducting the sermon at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley when someone dressed in black approached him, pulled out a knife, and struck him repeatedly to the face and torso.
Police declared it a “terrorist incident” with an extremist religious motivation.
Footage shows the teenager saying something in Arabic before lunging. According to The Daily Telegraph, the translation of his words were, “If he didn’t swear at my prophet I wouldn’t be here. If he didn’t involve himself in my religion I wouldn’t be here.”
