Australian authorities fatally shot a teenage boy after he stabbed and injured a man in what officials believe was likely a terrorist attack.
The teen assailant, described as a 16-year-old Caucasian male, was armed with a knife during the attack in a suburb of Perth, said Western Australia Premier Roger Cook.
The attack "has the hallmarks" of a terrorist act, said regional police commissioner Col Blanch, who emphasized that it "meets the criteria or at least the definition" of terrorism.
Another 16-year-old boy was arrested last month after police said he stabbed and seriously injured a bishop in Sydney as he said mass in what was characterized as a terroist incident. The teen was amond a group of teens who communicated online about attacks, according to investigators.
In the latest incident local police were alerted Saturday night by a male caller who openly declared his intent to commit acts of violence, reported CNN.
Moments later, another call reported a man wielding a knife and behaving erratically.
Resonding officers found the teen holding a "large kitchen knife." The teen reportedly charged the officers, and was fatally shot when police were unable to safely subdue him.
Police then learned that the teen had stabbed a middle-aged man before officers arrived. He survived the attack.
Blanch revealed that the suspect was already known to the police before the incident because "he had been part of a program on online radicalization for the past few years."
Blanch thanked members of the local Muslim community who had earlier raised concerns about the teen that "enabled us to identify this individual and respond as quickly as we did."
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement Sunday: "Australia is a nation that cherishes peace, and violent extremism has no place here."
