This is the moment an attacker smirked at horrified onlookers while being pinned down after wounding a bishop and several worshippers in the second mass stabbing to hit Sydney in just 48 hours.
The shocking attack, livestreamed on YouTube by church cameras this afternoon, came as Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was preaching at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Sydney's Wakeley district.
The bishop was speaking from the altar when a man dressed in a dark hoodie sauntered up and suddenly lunged at him, furiously swinging at the elderly clergyman's head and neck.
Churchgoers sprang into action, running up to the altar and piling on top of the attacker as others placed urgent calls to emergency services.
Footage shared on social media minutes after the stabbing showed the alleged attacker being pinned down on his front by at least three people, including a police officer.
He can be seen grinning at the camera as one of his captors sits beside him in bloodstained jeans. Meanwhile outside the church, dozens of angry Sydneysiders gathered singing chants of 'an eye for an eye' and 'bring him out' as riot police descended on the scene.
Nobody was killed in the attack, though a clip shared to social media showed the stricken bishop being rushed out of the church on a stretcher and bundled into the back of an ambulance.
The deplorable attack comes just two days after a knifeman cut down six people in ruthless killing spree just 20 miles away in an eastern Sydney suburb.
Joel Cauchi, 40, stabbed five women and one man to death and injured 12 others with a 30cm hunting knife in Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon, before being shot dead by New South Wales Police Inspector Amy Scott.
His distraught parents said their son struggled with schizophrenia and severe mental health issues, with police probing the possibility his attack targeted women.
Mass killings are rare in the country of about 27 million people, which has some of the world's toughest gun and knife laws.
