A man has been charged with threatening staff at an Australian lawmaker’s office with nunchucks, police said Thursday, days after another legislator was critically injured when a man allegedly struck her repeatedly with a car.

The two incidents have heightened concerns about the safety of female politicians in Australia, where lawmakers are generally accessible to the public.

Man charged after entering lawmaker’s office with nunchucks

Police said a 56-year-old man entered the electorate office of Western Australian state government minister Hannah Beazley in suburban Perth on Wednesday, brandishing nunchucks and making verbal threats. Beazley was not in the office at the time.

Nunchucks are martial arts weapons consisting of two sticks or rods connected by a rope or chain.

The man was detained and charged with being armed in a manner that could cause fear and threatening to commit an unlawful act. He spent the night in police custody and was scheduled to appear before a court in Perth later Thursday, police said.

Police have not alleged any connection between the incident and the case involving federal lawmaker Helen Haines, who was allegedly struck by a driver in the eastern state of Victoria on Monday.

Haines’ alleged attacker, Brendan Nugent, appeared in court on Wednesday, facing charges of intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official. He did not enter pleas and remains in custody.

Police are still investigating the motive for the alleged attack.

Haines, a 65-year-old independent lawmaker, remained in critical condition at a Melbourne hospital on Thursday after surgeons amputated both her legs, according to a statement from the health department.

Attacks raise concerns over tradition of accessible politicians

The incidents involving Haines and Beazley have intensified concerns about the safety of female politicians, who make up an increasing proportion of lawmakers in Australian parliaments.

Women account for just under half of the members of the federal Parliament, while a majority of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s Cabinet members are women.

Australian lawmakers are among the most accessible in the world, and political violence has traditionally been rare. However, concerns are growing that increasingly hostile public debate, fuelled by social media, is creating additional risks for elected women.

Albanese said the threat against Beazley, coming so soon after the alleged attack on Haines, was “just heartbreaking”. Beazley is the daughter of Kim Beazley, a former federal colleague of the prime minister.

“We can have debate and disagreement, but do it in a way without descending into the sort of violence that we have seen in too many parts of the world,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

“It's certainly not who we are as Australians,” he added.

Earlier this week, Albanese attended an online security briefing for female lawmakers from his centre-left Labor Party, during which security agencies addressed misogynistic threats directed at them.

Male and female federal lawmakers agree that women are bearing the brunt of online abuse.

“Of course people are concerned. They're anxious,” Albanese said, adding that aggressive behaviour had become normalised in ways that were not seen a couple of decades ago.

Beazley says staff shaken but safe

Beazley said she was at the state Parliament when the man entered her electorate office and demanded to see her.

She said two members of her staff had been “rattled” by the incident but remained safe behind a security screen.

“We don't know his motives at all,” she told reporters on Wednesday.

Governor-General Sam Mostyn, only the second woman to serve as the British monarch’s representative in Australia, said she had faced abuse on social media after speaking at a press conference on Wednesday alongside Haines’ husband, Phil Haines.

“Like any woman who has stepped up into any position across any part of our society, there is a unique and pernicious form of attack that comes our way,” Mostyn told ABC.

“Women across the country know that there are certain things that are reserved for women in that attack that go to our gender and they are often vicious and just despicable,” she added.