London (Parliament News) – Prince and Princess of Wales express sorrow over Sydney stabbings. Six were killed in the Bondi Junction shopping centre. The officer shoots the attacker. Baby stabbed, mother injured. Perpetrator known to police.
The Prince and Princess of Wales have expressed they are “shocked and saddened” after six people were massacred after a man went on a stabbing romp in a shopping centre in Sydney. The lone knifeman struck shoppers on Saturday afternoon at the Westfield shopping centre in the suburb of Bondi Junction in eastern Sydney.
William and Kate said: “We are shocked and saddened by the terrible events in Sydney earlier today. Our thoughts are with all those affected, including the loved ones of those lost and the heroic emergency responders who risked their own lives to save others. W & C”
A female New South Wales Police inspector encountered the attacker on her own and shot him dead as he lifted a knife and lunged at her. Police stated they had identified the attacker as a 40-year-old man who was known to them, but counted that they do not think he was motivated by terrorism. Four women and a man died in the shopping hub and another woman later died in hospital, police said.
A nine-month-old baby has experienced surgery and eight people, including the child, are in hospitals around Sydney obtaining treatment for “different injuries”. Reports have indicated the woman who died in hospital is the child’s mother. New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb informed at a press conference that her officers “believe that he is a 40-year-old man”.
She said: “If it is the person that we believe it is, then we don’t have fears for that person holding an ideation – in other words, that it’s not a terrorism happening. He is known to law enforcement but we are waiting to recognise him formally.”
Emergency services were summoned to Westfield Bondi Junction following news that multiple people had been stabbed at 3.30 pm (6.30 am UK time), police stated. Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, expressed the police officer “confronted the offender”.
He stated at a press conference that as she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him, he turned to face her, lifted a knife, and discharged a firearm, resulting in the person’s death. He added that the incident occurred rapidly, with the officer attending the scene alone and being guided by bystanders. She engaged immediately upon arrival. A shopper, who remained unnamed, recounted to ABC News the moment the person was shot, expressing that if she hadn’t intervened, the situation could have escalated. Another witness described assisting a baby who had been stabbed, reporting that the mother, also injured, handed the baby to him.