'Radicalised' 16-Year-Old Shot Dead By Australian Police After He Stabbed Man

Melbourne: 16-year-old boy was shot dead by Australian police after he stabbed a man in the Perth region in an incident that the authorities said "certainly has all the hallmarks" of a terrorism-related act. Officers said there is no threat to the masses as the boy seemed to have acted alone.

The teenager was wielding a large kitchen knife when the officers spotted him after a few calls alerting them of the boy, reported The Guardian. The incident occurred in the parking lot of a hardware store in suburban Willetton on Saturday night.

Police said two officers drew their Tasers and a third officer drew a firearm. The boy was asked to put down the knife, but the 16-year-old did not respond and allegedly ran at the officers, the report added citing WA police commissioner.

The first two officers fired their Tasers but when the boy allegedly continued to approach, the third officer fired a single shot fatally injuring the 16-year-old, police said, quoted The Guardian.

The cops said that the teenager was allegedly known to officials and had been involved in a countering violent extremism (CVE) program since 2022 when he was 13.

They said there were indications the 16-year-old "had been radicalised online". Meanwhile, the 18-year-old man whom the teenager stabbed, was in serious but stable condition, police said.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said he had been briefed on the incident by Australia Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess, who heads the nation's main domestic spy agency.

"I'm advised there is no ongoing threat to the community on the information available...We are a peace-loving nation and there is no place for violent extremism in Australia," Albanese said in a statement, quoted AP.

This comes after recent events in which New South Wales police charged several youths with terrorism-related offenses in connection to the stabbing of an Assyrian Christian bishop during a live-streamed sermon in Sydney on April 15.

Earlier, a mass stabbing in Bondi claimed six lives.