(Voice of Paul) – Six people are dead after a stabbing spree in Australia on Saturday afternoon, including the suspect who was shot to death by a police officer, authorities confirmed.
The incident took place at Westfield Bondi Junction, a six-level shopping center in Sydney.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb confirmed at a news conference that four women and one man were killed in the shopping center, and subsequently another woman died at a hospital. Eight others were hospitalized and are being treated for different injuries associated with the attack.
A nine-month-old infant was among those injured and has been in surgery, Webb said.
“The crime scene remains ongoing, and it will remain ongoing for a number of days,” she added.
Webb said the suspect is a 40-year-old man who was known to police.
“We know a little bit about this person but we are waiting to confirm his identification,” the commissioner said. She added that police do not believe he was “holding an ideation — in other words, that it’s not a terrorism incident.”
“Let me assure you that we are confident that there is no ongoing risk and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,” Webb said.
Earlier, New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters that six people, including the attacker, had died. He said the lone suspect was shot by an officer who was on her own.
“She confronted the offender who had moved by this stage to level five [of the mall] as she continued to walk quickly behind him to catch up with him. He turned, faced her, raised a knife. She discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased,” Cooke said.
Eight other people were taken to the hospital for treatment. Australian media reported and police confirmed that one of the injured was an infant.
“The baby got stabbed,” a witness told 9News.
The witness and his brother said they helped to compress the baby and mother’s wounds before they were taken to an ambulance.
“The mom got stabbed, and the mom came over with the baby and threw it at me and [I] was holding the baby,” he said.
The brother said he believed the baby would survive its injuries, but that the mother was in worse shape with a lot of blood coming out of her mouth.
An eyewitness at the mall told Reuters she saw a baby with stab wounds being taken to an ambulance.
Reese Colmenares was among 20 others who hid in a hardware store when people started running out of the mall, including the mother and her baby.
“The mother was terrified, the mother was sad, just holding (and) comforting the baby,” she told Reuters.