Sydney mall stabbing attack: ‘He had a nice big blade...,’ eyewitness recounts horror | Here's what we know so far

As many as six people were killed in a stabbing attack in a sprawling Sydney shopping centre packed with Saturday shoppers. Several others, including a young child, were injured in the attack.

A policewoman at the scene shot the knife-wielding attacker dead. "If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage, " an eyewitness said.

Here is all we know about the Sydney stabbing attack: 

• The Sydney stabbing incident occurred at the busy Westfield Bondi Junction mall complex.
• According to the security camera footage broadcasted by Australia's local media, the attacker was wearing an Australian rugby league jersey and was been running around the Sydney shopping centre with a large knife. 
• New South Wales police assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke informed that there were five victims of the attack “who are now deceased as a result of the actions of this offender."
• Cooke said that the motive of the stabbing attack was not immediately clear, but has not ruled out the angle of "terrorism".
• "I do not know at this stage who he is. You would understand this is quite raw. Inquiries are very new and we are continuing to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter," said Cooke.
• A New South Wales Ambulance spokesperson told AFP that eight patients were taken to various hospitals across Sydney, including a young child who was taken to the city's Children's Hospital. "They all have traumatic injuries," the official said.
• Such attacks are virtually unheard of in Australia, which has relatively low rates of violent crime.
• The Sydney mall has been locked down and police have urged people to avoid the area.

Also read: Multiple stabbed, 6 dead at Bondi Mall complex; cops say suspect acted alone

• Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Sydney stabbing attack is "beyond words or understanding". "Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
• "If she did not shoot him, he would have kept going, he was on the rampage," an eyewitness told Reuters referring to the attacker. “She went over and was giving him CPR. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree."
• Another eyewitness who hid in a hardware store with 20 others when people started running out of the mall, told Reuters she saw a baby with stab wounds being taken to an ambulance. “The mother was terrified, the mother was sad, just holding (and) comforting the baby," she said.

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Published: 13 Apr 2024, 03:23 PM IST