SYDNEY (AP) 鈥� 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鈥檚 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.
Cooke said he believed that the suspect acted alone, and he was 鈥渃ontent that there is no continuing threat.鈥� He said officials didn鈥檛 know who the offender was. 鈥淭his is quite raw,鈥� he said, and a 鈥漧engthy and precise" investigation was just beginning.
He said there was 鈥渘othing that we are aware of at the scene that would indicate any motive or any ideology.鈥� When asked whether officials were ruling out terrorism, he said: 鈥淲e鈥檙e not ruling anything out.鈥�
Cooke said the police inspector, a senior officer, was alone when she confronted the suspect and engaged him soon after her arrival on the scene, 鈥渟aving a range of people's lives.鈥�
Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping center, and people streaming out.
Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.
Witness Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.
鈥淎nd suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn鈥檛 know what to do,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen 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.鈥�
The Associated Press
