Fri 03 September 2021:
At least six people were injured in a stabbing incident at a supermarket in Auckland, New Zealand, before the suspect was shot and killed by police.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated on Friday that the male suspect, who was known to the government’s “many agencies,” was killed one minute after starting the attack at midday, and that he was inspired by the ISIL (ISIS) group.
Ardern said the incident was a “terror” assault.
“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.
“Had he done something that would have allowed us to put him into prison, he would have been in prison,” Ardern said.
A video posted on social media showed shoppers 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.
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.
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