Sydney stabbing attack: seven people dead, including suspect, as police do not believe attack was terror-related – latest live blog updates
Sydney stabbing attack: several people dead including suspect in shopping centre, police say
A man stabbed six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said. Multiple people, including a small child, were also injured in the attack.
The suspect stabbed nine people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is 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.
Six of the victims and the suspect died. Police had no specific details on the condition of the injured.
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Key updates
The death toll from the Sydney stabbings has risen to seven, including the lone knife attacker, New South Wales Police said.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said he is "horrified" and will reach out to the Australian prime minister. "I am horrified by the attack in Sydney on innocent people, including children. "I will reach out to prime minster Anthony Albanese personally but for now the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends," said Mr Harris on X.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the attack in the shopping centre in Sydney is a reminder of how the world is "more threatening and insecure". "Horrendous and a terrible shock at the news," Mr Martin said on The Anton Savage Show on Newstalk. "It's a reminder of the far more threatening and insecure world that we live in, when attacks of this kind can happen without any warning," he said. There is a significant Irish community in Sydney and the Tánaiste said thoughts go immediately to those family and friends in the area. "Of course all of us, we all know people who are in that district right now, family and friends and so forth. That's the immediate thought," Mr Martin said. "So our thoughts are with those who are now bereaved and who have lost loved ones in this horrific attack," he added. The Foreign Affairs Minister said these types of attacks were on the rise and analysis was needed on the background to the attack in Sydney. "I think it is for obviously the police and so on who will investigate this morning. We will learn more about it and the background to it. But I think it does mean overall these type of attacks are increasing and we need to analyse more, reflect more on what's the background to all of this," Mr Martin said. - Tabitha Monahan
Police said they had identified the attacker as a 40-year-old man who was known to them, but added that they do not think he was motivated by terrorism.
Four women and a man died in the shopping centre and another woman later died in hospital, police said.
A nine-month-old infant has undergone surgery and "about eight" people, including the child, are in hospitals around Sydney receiving treatment for "different injuries" as a result of the attack.
A husband said his wife was taken to hospital with a stab wound after the Sydney attack.
Speaking to ABC News Australia outside St Vincent's Hospital Sydney, where he had been waiting with his children for news of his wife, he said: "We didn't know what had happened.
"She had just got a little stab in the top right hand corner of her back.
"She thought she had got punched then she touched herself and there was blood, then apart from that she is OK, she is alive and that's over - the stress is over, the panic, no one could tell you anything, it was terrible.
"You see it overseas but you don't see it over here."
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there was no indication yet of the man's motive.
"This was a horrific act of violence, indiscriminately targeting innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping," he told a press conference.
"Tonight the first thoughts of all Australians are with the victims of these terrible acts."
Australia has some of the world's toughest gun and knife laws, and attacks such as the one on Saturday are rare.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the Sydney attack was "awful, awful".
She said: "The police officer that attended is enormously courageous, as were other police officers that had attended that Bondi area.
"I spoke to them this afternoon when they returned to the station."
She said shopkeepers and people within the shopping centre also "showed amazing courage and bravery".
"It was an awful situation and no doubt people dealing with the trauma that they witnessed but it could have been much worse."
HERO
A female police officer who shot dead the knife attacker who killed six people and injured several others in a Sydney shopping centre has been hailed a hero who saved lives.
A female police officer who shot dead the knife attacker who killed six people and injured several others in a Sydney shopping centre has been hailed a hero who saved lives.
The New South Wales Police officer was one of dozens who responded to a stabbing spree at around 3.30pm on Saturday in the Westfield Bondi Junction centre.
But she appeared to be on her own as she fired after being confronted by the knifeman who lunged at her, police said.
The death toll from the Sydney stabbings has risen to seven, including the lone knife attacker, New South Wales Police said.
Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese posted on social media site X: "Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders."
A man said he helped a baby which was stabbed at a shopping centre in Sydney.
The man told 9News Sydney: "The baby got stabbed. The mum got stabbed and came over with a baby and threw it at me - I was holding the baby, it looked pretty bad.
He added: "There was a lot of blood on the floor. I hope the baby is all right."
The man's brother, who was also at the shopping centre, added: "He helped with holding the baby and trying to compress the baby and same with the mother. We just kept yelling out to get some clothes, get some shirts and and just help us to compress and stop the baby from bleeding.
"With my brother holding the baby so well and really compressing - I think the baby's fine. The mother unfortunately started to have a lot of blood come out of her mouth."
Asked about the attack, he added: "We were just shopping and saw the man run up to the woman with the baby and then we were both ready to go and help out. But I just said to my brother, we've got to run in - ran in, told the guys to lock up the doors and then the mother came with the baby bleeding, stabbed and we got them into the store and just got them safe and then rang for help."
Taoiseach Simon Harris said he is "horrified" and will reach out to the Australian prime minister.
"I am horrified by the attack in Sydney on innocent people, including children.
"I will reach out to prime minster Anthony Albanese personally but for now the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends," said Mr Harris on X.
"I am horrified by the attack in Sydney on innocent people, including children.
"I will reach out to prime minster Anthony Albanese personally but for now the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Ireland are with our Australian friends," said Mr Harris on X.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the attack in the shopping centre in Sydney is a reminder of how the world is "more threatening and insecure".
"Horrendous and a terrible shock at the news," Mr Martin said on The Anton Savage Show on Newstalk.
"It's a reminder of the far more threatening and insecure world that we live in, when attacks of this kind can happen without any warning," he said.
There is a significant Irish community in Sydney and the Tánaiste said thoughts go immediately to those family and friends in the area.
"Of course all of us, we all know people who are in that district right now, family and friends and so forth. That's the immediate thought," Mr Martin said.
"So our thoughts are with those who are now bereaved and who have lost loved ones in this horrific attack," he added.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said these types of attacks were on the rise and analysis was needed on the background to the attack in Sydney.
"I think it is for obviously the police and so on who will investigate this morning. We will learn more about it and the background to it. But I think it does mean overall these type of attacks are increasing and we need to analyse more, reflect more on what's the background to all of this," Mr Martin said.
- Tabitha Monahan
- Tabitha Monahan
The suspect stabbed nine people at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is 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.
Five of the victims and the suspect died, he said. He had no specific details on the condition of the injured.
Five of the victims and the suspect died, he said. He had no specific details on the condition of the injured.
Six people died at a Sydney shopping centre where a stabbing attack took place and eight patients were transported to hospital, New South Wales Ambulance said.
A spokesman for New South Wales Ambulance told a press conference: "Shortly after 3pm today, New South Wales Ambulance received multiple calls for persons stabbed within Westfield Bondi Junction.
"We've responded a total of 40 resources to the scene who remain on scene still. That included a total of four medical teams.
"New South Wales Ambulance assessed and transported eight patients to various hospital facilities across Sydney and assessed a total of six patients who have been deemed deceased on scene."
Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police Force, said in a press conference after the Sydney attack: "A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned at about 20 past three; as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people.
"It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.
"Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly - a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, (and) went into the centre directed by a range of people.
"She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.
"As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased."
Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping center, and people streaming out. ABC reported that armed police were searching a rooftop parking lot.
Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.
Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.
“And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”
In a statement on social media, police said emergency services were called to the shopping centre near Bondi Beach just before 4pm local time, with reports that multiple people had been stabbed.
“A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of male at Bondi Junction,” New South Wales police said.
Police are now urging people to avoid the area and said inquiries are now ongoing with no further details at this time.
Two witnesses told Reuters they heard shots fired.
One of the witnesses said they saw a woman lying on the ground before sheltering in a jewellery store.
Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the area.