A man killed six people and injured at least 12 others during a knife attack at a popular shopping mall in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday afternoon, in one of the country’s deadliest acts of mass violence in decades.
Authorities said a man wielding a knife walked into the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center and began stabbing people before a lone police officer shot and killed him.
Five people died of their injuries at the scene and a 38-year-old woman later died in hospital, police said. Among those hospitalized, some in critical condition, was a 9-month-old baby.
Five women, aged between 20 and 55, and a man in his 30s were killed, police said.
Two of the victims had no family in Australia, Anthony Cook, assistant police commissioner for New South Wales, told a news conference on Sunday morning. Efforts were being made to contact their families abroad, he added.
The victims who remained in hospital, including the baby, were in a serious but stable condition, Commissioner Cook said. At least 12 victims, including nine women and two men, were in hospital in addition to the baby, police said.
Police officials on Sunday identified the attacker as Joel Cauchi, 40, from Queensland, which is more than 1,000 miles north of Bondi Junction. Commissioner Cook said police believed he came to Sydney last month.
His motive remained unclear, but police said the victims did not appear to have been targeted.
Mr Cauchi had mental health problems, Commissioner Cooke said, and the attack did not appear to be terrorism-related.
The violence of the rampage, which took place over a weekend in a busy area popular with families, children and tourists, stunned Australians. Mass shootings are rare in the country, which has strict gun laws, and Saturday’s attack was the worst act of mass violence since 2017. In that incident, a driver in a drug-induced psychosis killed six people after plowing deliberately rammed his car into pedestrians in Melbourne.
For many buyers, the hype came first, before it became apparent that there was any danger. Some hid behind the scenes fearing for their lives as alarms rang through the mall. Others ran, screaming, past the injured victims on the floor. Parents held their children’s hands.
Gavin Lockhart, 37, said in a phone call that he was sitting in a cafe at the mall when he suddenly saw people running. At first, he said, he thought it was a celebrity appearance. Then, he said, he began to hear, “He’s got a knife! He has a knife!”
Michael Dunkley, 57, who owns a coffee shop in the mall, said by phone that when the screaming started, he had one thought in his mind: “I have to get my wife and my staff to safety.” He led the team into a staff room before heading out to find the assailant.
Mr Dunkley said he saw a police officer arrest the attacker on the fifth floor of the mall. He described the attacker as a thin man with a beard and short hair, wearing dark green trousers and a green shirt. The officer told him to stop and put the knife down, she said, but then lunged at her with a knife. “He didn’t say anything,” said Mr. Dunkley. “He seemed determined.”
The officer, a senior police officer who was nearby, authorities said, then shot the assailant, Mr. Dunkley said, and administered CPR after he fell. Police said the man was fatally shot.
Footage of the attack, shared by local media, captured the knife-wielding man running towards shoppers and the crowd screaming. One person apparently tried to tackle the attacker on an escalator. Other witnesses said they had used nearby clothing to compress the wounds of a mother and nine-month-old baby who had been stabbed.
One of those treating the victims was Andrew Reid, 44, a lifeguard who was looking for a bed when he heard people had been stabbed. Many stores were on lockdown and people had been ordered to evacuate, he said by phone. But after seeing people lying bleeding on the floor, Mr Reid said, he used his lifeguard training to try to help them.
One had a wound on her back, he said, adding that they had used clothing from a clothing store to try to stop the bleeding. He ran to another woman who was lying unconscious nearby and had a deep gash in her chest, he said.
“There was a lot of blood around her,” Mr Reid said. “I honestly don’t think he made it.”
Many of those who were evacuated praised the police response. Mr Lockhart, who said he saw the officer shoot the attacker, sounded stunned. “The only positive I’m looking at is the officer probably saved my life,” he said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also praised the courage of the officer who confronted the attacker. “There is no doubt that she saved lives through her actions,” he told a news conference Saturday, calling her a “hero.”
Australians, he said, will be shocked. “This was an appalling act of violence that indiscriminately targeted innocent people going about their normal Saturday shopping.”
The shock was that the rampage took place in Bondi Junction, an area east of Sydney best known as a meeting place for friends and families looking for a day of shopping or passing through on their way to the beach. Weekend shoppers wander through the hundreds of stores in the massive mall.
The area is a transit hub for both residents and tourists visiting the sandy beaches of Sydney’s eastern suburbs. They include some of the city’s most iconic coastlines, such as Bondi Beach.
“In this country, these things shouldn’t happen,” said Mr Dunkley, the cafe’s owner. “People come here because it’s safe.”
Claire Fahy contributed to the report.
