Six killed as hundreds flee Sydney shopping centre after stabbing attack
At least six people were killed and eight injured after a man went on a stabbing spree at a Sydney shopping centre on Saturday.Hundreds of people on Saturday were evacuated from the Bondi Junction Westfield with a major police operation underway at the site near Bondi Beach, with 40 emergency service vehicles attending.
Five were initially reported dead but it was said a few hours later that a sixth victim had died from their injuries in hospital.
A nine-month-old baby is among those injured, according to paramedics.
Police say the motive is unknown and have not ruled out terrorism.
“Things are very raw at this stage,” assistant commissioner Anthony Cooke said in a press conference. “I do not have many details... it is a very big crime scene. This is about dealing with this terrible situation and making sure everybody is safe.”
Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the scene.
An eyewitness said he was in a cafe with his two small children when he saw a man “stabbing people indiscriminately”.
ABC News Australia spoke to the witness, who did not want to be identified, and reported: “He saw a bloke in a green shirt start stabbing people indiscriminately, he handed off his kids to his wife who escaped before he started trying to help a woman who had been stabbed outside.
Bondi Junction is a large shopping centre, comparable with the Westfield in Stratford in London, and Saturday afternoon is one of its busiest times.
A shopper said the attacker was "on a killing spree". The shopper, who was not named, told ABC News: "He just started floating towards us and all I heard was 'put it down' and then she shot him
"But we were in no doubt, if she didn't shoot him, he would have kept going. He was on the rampage.
"Then she walked over and gave him CPR. He had a big blade on him - she chucked the knife away.
"He looked like he was on a killing spree."
New South Wales Police in a statement: "A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of a male at Bondi Junction.
"Just before 4pm, emergency services were called to Westfield Bondi Junction following reports of multiple people stabbed.”
Several posts on social media showed crowds fleeing the mall and police cars and emergency services rushing to the scene.
An eyewitness said he was in a cafe with his two small children when he saw a man “stabbing people indiscriminately”.
ABC News Australia spoke to the witness, who did not want to be identified, and reported: “He saw a bloke in a green shirt start stabbing people indiscriminately, he handed off his kids to his wife who escaped before he started trying to help a woman who had been stabbed outside.
“He said he saw screaming, screaming and it didn’t seem that long before we heard the boom, boom, boom of the gunshot and we thought and hoped that it was the police. The security guard, he said, was dying 10 metres away.
“He grabbed towels there, and there were three people dying right around him (the eyewitness).
“It was just carnage, was how he described the situation as it unfolded, he was very much there after he sent his children and his wife to safety.
“The first responders didn’t realise they were coming in to see multiple critical people, and added the cops were just unreal.”
Chilling video footage has shown the attacker run with a knife around the centre. Another video shows him being confronted with a bollard while on an escalator.
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