NEW YORK, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that Saturday's mass stabbing at a rabbi's house in upstate New York was an act of domestic terrorism.

The governor made the remarks while visiting the scene in the small town of Monsey, some 30 miles (48 km) north of New York City with a large orthodox Jewish community.

Dozens were celebrating the Jewish traditional festival of Hanukkah at the home of rabbi Chaim Rottenberg, when a man brandishing a machete walked in and stabbed and injured five people.

"This is terrorism, it is domestic terrorism," Cuomo said. "These are people who intend to create mass harm, mass violence, generate fear based on race, color, creed."

The suspect, a local man from Greenwood Lake, New York, fled the site in a car after the stabbing. He was arrested two hours later in New York City's Manhattan.

On Sunday, he appeared in a New York court and was charged with five counts of attempted murder, local media reported.

New York and its surrounding areas have seen a surge of anti-Semitic incidents in recent days. In New York City, police presence has been stepped up in major Jewish neighborhoods following multiple suspected anti-semitic attacks over the past week.