Safety of USyd students paramount as police investigate 14-year-old after alleged stabbing

A 14-year-old boy who allegedly stabbed a student at the University of Sydney on Tuesday morning was accused of threatening a mass-shooting at his school less than a year ago, it has been alleged.

The uni's Camperdown campus went into lockdown at 8:46am after a 22-year-old male Australian student was stabbed with a kitchen knife. The alleged perpetrator and the victim are not believed to have known each other.

Emergency services rushed to the scene and delivered the victim to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital (RPA), which declared his injuries were minor and that he would make a full recovery.

The teenage boy was seen boarding a bus on Parramatta Rd and presented himself to the same hospital, where he was later arrested by police.

CCTV footage that emerged later on Tuesday showed the alleged perpetrator on foot on Camperdown’s Missenden Road on his way to RPA, clutching his hand where he is believed to have obtained a minor injury.

He was treated for the injury and underwent a mental health assessment. He has not been charged.

The teenage boy was dressed in a camouflage suit with a camouflage broad-brimmed hat and black boots.

NSW Police said the boy was already known to police and security services. He allegedly threatened to carry out a terrorist attack at his Inner West school last September, but the charges were dismissed by the Children's Court in February on mental health grounds.

He had allegedly made violent threats to classmates at his school, and spoke about Brenton Tarrant, the terrorist who killed 51 people in the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre in New Zealand.

He was put into a government-run deradicalisation program after that case was dismissed.

On Tuesday NSW Police Assistant Commissioner for Counter Terror and Special Tactics Command Mark Walton stressed police believe the attack was not religiously motivated, not connected to recent campus protests about the Israel-Gaza war, nor was it linked to an alleged terror incident in Newcastle last week.

Counter-terrorism police have now taken over the investigation, but have not declared the incident a terrorist attack because they have not identified a specific ideology as required by legislation.

NSW Police and the Australian Federal Police do not believe the boy's camouflage outfit indicates links to the military or cadets.

“A lot of vulnerable people are not linked to one particular ideology, they move as they’re exposed to different things,” Assistant Commissioner Walton said, declining to reveal specific details of the investigation into the incident.

“It might be a white supremacist, neo-Nazi, they can easily flip into a religious ideation – it’s a very complex environment … it’s not a linear position where we can respond to one particular ideology," he said, speaking generally.

Counter-terror investigators are dealing with a growing cohort of children and teenagers aged 12 to 16 in their caseloads, Assistant Commissioner Walton said.

He urged parents to appreciate what their children consume online, as it is "very easy for young people to self radicalise" in an environment where they can access past terror attacks and linked extremist ideologies.

The University of Sydney campus lockdown was lifted later that day, and a spokesperson said university management would continue to work with authorities.

“There may be an increased security and police presence on campus while investigations continue,” she said.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students, staff and members of the community is our priority, and we continue to work with authorities.”

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