Teenager arrested for planning Islamic State-inspired stabbing spree

The island nation has arrested a teenager who was allegedly planning an IS-inspired terror attack in a busy suburb, the interior minister said, adding that it was “a very close call”.

After watching IS propaganda glorifying knife attacks, the 17-year-old visited the suburb to rehearse the attack before being arrested in August, Home Minister K. Shanmugam said.

“He was serious because he was actually practicing stabbing movements with the scissors. He checked which place would cause death – basically the neck area – then practiced hitting the neck,” Shanmugam told reporters. “I would say it was a very close shave. It was fortunate that the ISD (Department of Homeland Security) arrested him in time.”

The teenager, detained under the Internal Security Act, was said to have planned a spate of stabbings to coincide with the September school holidays, when the area would be packed with people.

In a statement released on Friday, the ISD said the teenager was exposed to the deluge of online extremist materials published by the IS group following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.

“He joined several online groups that provided updates on IS activities and believed IS rhetoric of promoting the use of violence to establish an Islamic caliphate,” the ISD said.

In January, “young people became staunch supporters of IS and aspired to die as martyrs while fighting for the group,” he added.

He pledged allegiance to IS and intended to travel to Syria to fight there, according to ISD.

The teenager acted alone because he was unable to radicalize other people, the ISD added.

His family noticed him watching videos of radical preachers and advised him to stop, but he continued, using “code words” when discussing his beliefs online, the department said. -AFP