Six people have been killed, several injured, including a nine-month-old baby, in a mass stabbing at a busy shopping centre in Sydney, Australian police said.
Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction on Saturday afternoon after reports of several stabbings.
According to police, the suspect confronted nine people after he entered the shopping centre at 3:10 p.m. local time. He left and re-entered the mall at 3:20 p.m. before carrying out the attack.
A senior police inspector was nearby when the attack took place. She was the first to arrive on the scene and shot the perpetrator when he tried to strike her, according to NSW’s Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke.
New South Wales (NSW) police commissioner Karen Webb said four women and one man died at the shopping centre and another woman died in hospital. She added that eight people are currently being treated for various injuries in Sydney hospitals, including a nine-month-old infant who has undergone surgery.
Webb told reporters that current elements did not indicate a terrorist motive, but said the investigation would continue for “many, many days” and that it was “too early to say” what was behind the attack. She added the suspect was a 40-year-old man, but because background checks are ongoing, no further information is available yet.
Witnesses described a scene of panic as some were forced to hide in shops during the attack. Video posted on social media shows shoppers fleeing from several exits of the shopping centre and police helicopters can be heard overhead.
In a televised address, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the attack as “beyond words or understanding” and stressed the following: “Our brave police, our first responders, and of course everyday people who could never have imagined they would face such a moment.”
Mass casualty events are rare in Australia. Four people were killed and one injured in a mass shooting in Darwin in northern Australia in 2019. In 1996, the deadliest attack in modern Australian history occurred when 35 people were killed in a tourist town in the state of Tasmania.
