CANBERRA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Evidence found at the scene of a crime spree by two Australian teenagers that left one man dead, has suggested the incident was related to terrorism.
Two boys, aged 15 and 16, allegedly entered a service station on the border of New South Wales (NSW) and the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) in Queanbeyan in the early hours of Friday morning and stabbed 29-year-old Pakistani employee Zeeshan Akbar.
Akbar died at the scene and police said the co-worker who found him was "obviously very shaken."
Akbar was one of the victims of the crime spree with another man who was stabbed in a stable condition in the Canberra Hospital while another was bashed with a tyre iron and a fourth was hit with a glass bottle in a nearby park.
The two teens were arrested by police at 6:30 a.m. local time in the ACT on Friday after an extended chase.
Catherine Burn, NSW deputy police commissioner, said all evidence pointed to the attack being terror-related.
An ISIS symbol was reportedly painted on the wall of the service station in blood while the mother of the older boy had warned police she believed her son had become radicalized.
Police believe only the older boy was motivated by terrorism, but both were previously known to authorities.
NSW Police will investigate the incident with the Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) and the Crime Commission.
Mohammed Shahanawaz, a friend of Akbar's, said he was a kind and calm person.
"Can you believe how bad it is for their family back home in Pakistan?" Shahanawaz told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Saturday.
Natania Copp was a regular customer of the service station and was shocked to hear of the attack.
"It just hit me in the chest and I was there last night and I didn't know who it was at the time, I just said please, please, please don't let it be my favourite guy," Copp said.
"That's why I brought flowers here today just to let the family know that your son was the nicest person that I'd ever met behind a counter."
