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03-09-2021
AUCKLAND: At least six people have been injured in a lone-wolf stabbing attack at a supermarket in the New Zealand city of Auckland, before police shot him dead, according to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The man, known to the government’s “multiple agencies”, was killed within 60 seconds after beginning the attack at noon, Ardern said on Friday, adding that he had been inspired by the ISIL (ISIS) group.
“It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” Ardern said, describing the attacker as a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011. “He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”
Ardern said she was limited in what she could say publicly about the man, who had been under surveillance since 2016 because he was the subject of court suppression orders.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said authorities were confident the man was acting alone and there was no further danger to the community.
A video posted on social media showed shoppers in the New Lynn supermarket shortly after the attacker struck.
“There’s someone here with a knife … he’s got a knife,” a woman is heard saying. “Somebody got stabbed.”
A guard asked people to leave the shopping mall shortly before about six shots rang out.
Panicked shoppers
Of the wounded people in three Auckland hospitals, three were in critical condition, and the other three in moderate condition, journalist Jordyn Rudd, reporting from the scene, told media.
“There is still a heavy police presence in the scene at 7pm and the area is still cordoned off,” she said.
“Police forces are still investigating the incident and they will stay until late at night to piece together what exactly happened.”
Witnesses told reporters outside the mall that they had seen several people lying on the floor with stab wounds. Others said they heard gunshots as they ran out of the supermarket.
Videos posted online earlier showed panicked shoppers running out of the mall and looking for cover.
New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15, 2019.
In May, four people were stabbed in a supermarket in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island. (Int’l News Desk)
