Man Kills Six In Australia Shopping Mall
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA (Worthy News) – A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said, in a case that shocked the nation.
Eight people, including a 9-month-old baby, were injured in the attack in Australia’s most populous city, officials confirmed.
The 40-year-old suspect began stabbing people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction in the city’s eastern suburbs before a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the 40-year-old was known to police but not believed to have held terrorist views. Six of the victims — five women and a man — and the suspect died, she explained.
Webb also said that the eight injured people were being treated at hospitals. The baby among them was in surgery, but it was too early to know the condition, she added.
“We are confident that there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,” Webb said in a later briefing.
NO TERRORISM?
She stressed: “It’s not a terrorism incident” at a time when Western nations are on heightened alert for possible violence linked to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.
Karen said police wouldn’t identify the man yet and were still working to determine his motivation.
Britain’s King Charles III said he and his wife, Queen Camilla, “were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi.”
He added, “Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack.”
The king stressed that “While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services.”
The Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine, also sent their condolences, saying they were “shocked and saddened” by the events in Sydney.
CLOSE TIES
Britain’s royal family has close ties with Australia as it belongs to the Commonwealth, the association of 56 member states that are mainly ex-territories of the British Empire.
Their remarks came as more details emerged of Saturday’s bloodshed. “They just said run, run, run — someone’s been stabbed,” one witness told ABC TV in Australia.
“(The attacker) was walking really calmly like he was having an ice cream in a park. And then he went up the escalators … and probably within about a minute, we heard three gunshots,” the witness added.
Police official Cooke said a ”lengthy and precise” investigation was just beginning.
Some witnesses were shocked at the rare outburst of violence.
Australia enacted strict gun laws after a man killed 35 and wounded another 23 in 1996 in Tasmania. But Saturday’s tragedy was a reminder that dangers remain.
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