Australian man stabbed in Maldives terror attack
Shocking footage shows an Australian man being rushed to hospital at the back of a scooter after he was stabbed in a terror attack in the Maldives. WARNING: GRAPHIC
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An Australian man has been stabbed in a “heinous” terror attack in the tropical island paradise of the Maldives.
The 44-year-old man and two Chinese citizens were attacked in three separate locations on the island of Hulhumale on Tuesday night, local time.
Shocking footage shows the Australian covered in blood on the back of a scooter as he was taken to hospital by a member of the public.
He is seen in the footage, confirmed by a local police source, calmly walking into the Tree Top Hospital where he was tonight recovering.
The Herald Sun understands that the man is not a tourist, and was in the Maldives on a working visa.
The Maldives Police Service confirmed tonight that they had arrested three “suspects” over the attack.
They had previously described the stabbing as an “act of violence perpetrated by suspected extremists”.
“We are continuously monitoring the status of the victims of this heinous attack,” the service said.
“Their condition is reported to be stable.”
A spokesperson said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was “seeking to contact an Australian man hospitalised in the Maldives”.
Hulhumale is located in the North Male Atoll, which is an archipelago in the Indian Ocean southwest of Sri Lanka and India.
It is believed that one of the Chinese nationals was a tourist and the other worked in the city.
A radical Maldivian group affiliated with Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack in a video posted online, local media reported.
One of the three masked men seen in the video accused the Maldivian government of being run by infidels and warned more such attacks were coming.
Police said the service was “establishing the validity of a video circulating on social media”.
The attack comes after a 35-year-old man identified by US authorities as a leader for Islamic State in the Maldives was arrested last year.
He was accused of leading Islamic State recruitment in the mainly Sunni Muslim nation.
– with wires