At least six people were killed and several others, including a child, were injured in a mass stabbing incident at a shopping centre in the Australian city of Sydney on Saturday.
Police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction, one of the busiest shopping destinations in the city, following reports of multiple stabbings.
Police said the suspect acted alone and was shot dead at the scene of the attack.
New South Wales Police’s Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told CNN that a senior police inspector was nearby when the attack unfolded.
She reached the scene first and engaged with the attacker.
The police inspector shot the attacker when he raised a knife on her.
“She discharged her firearm, and that person is now deceased,” Cooke told CNN.
No information regarding the attacker, or the motive behind the incident, has been disclosed so far.
Eight people, including a child, have been transported to hospitals across Sydney, NSW Ambulance service confirmed to CNN.
Witnesses describe the scene
Two brothers said they helped a mother and her baby who were stabbed by the attacker.
“The baby got stabbed,” one of the men told 9News.
“The mum got stabbed and the mum came over with the baby and threw it at me and (I) was holding the baby,” he said.
The man said he believed the baby would survive the injury.
The husband of one of the injured told 9News he was relieved to see his wife at St Vincent’s Hospital.
“We didn’t know what had happened,” he said.
“She just got a little, they said, stab in the top right-hand corner of her back,” he said.
“She thought she got punched and then she touched herself and there was blood,” he said.
“But apart from that, she’s okay, she’s alive and that’s all that matters,” he told the news channel.
Earlier, a grocery shop worker at the shopping centre told 9News he was let out of the shopping centre just after 4.30pm.
“My girlfriend called me, she said that her mum works upstairs, level three and she said, ‘Look, please be careful, there’s a shooting’,” he said.
Australian PM reacts
Australian PM Anthony Albanese described the event in the mall as ‘devastating’.
“I have been briefed by the AFP on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones,” he said.
“Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders,” he posted on X.
Mass casualty events are rare in Australia.
In 2019, at least four people died in a mass shooting incident in Darwin.
