At Least 6 Dead in Mall Stabbing That Horrifies Australians (2024)

Six people were killed and several others injured in a stabbing rampage Saturday afternoon at a crowded major mall in Sydney, Australia’s deadliest act of mass violence in at least eight years.

The attacker was shot and killed by a lone police officer who was directed into the mall by people fleeing the scene, police said. The officer was following the man with the knife, trying to catch up to him, when he turned and lunged at her with the weapon, according to the police. The officer then opened fire, saving lives, Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner for the New South Wales Police, said.

The stabbing attack in a Sydney shopping center that left at least six people dead on Saturday was Australia’s worst act of mass violence since 2017, when a driver killed six people by deliberately plowing his car into pedestrians in Melbourne.

In a country where mass stabbings and shootings are rare — in part because of strict gun laws — the latest attack has horrified Australians.

Andrew Reid was shopping for a bed when he heard that people had been stabbed at the mall. He used his training as a lifeguard to help treat two women who had been stabbed on the mall’s fourth floor. “We grabbed some clothes out of the clothes store, trying to stop the bleeding,” he said, adding that he had managed to stop one of the women from bleeding further.

Witnesses to the stabbings at a mall in a Sydney, Australia, on Saturday described a scene of terror as shoppers fled from the knife-wielding man or huddled in stores as panic spread through the shopping center.

Some shoppers hid inside as alarms blared. Others ran out, screaming as they passed by bodies on the floor.

Witnesses struggled to process what had happened at the mall even hours after the attack. “I don’t think it’s really sank in,” Lockhart, who also saw the officer shoot the attacker, said in an interview. “The one positive I’m looking at is the police officer probably saved my life.”

Gavin Lockhart was sitting in a coffee shop at the mall when he suddenly saw people running. “Is it a celebrity?” he first thought. “Is it because of a gunman?” Then he said he fled when he began hearing, “He’s got a knife! He’s got a knife!”

The officer appeared to shoot the attacker in the chest two to three times on the fifth floor of the mall, on a walkway that bridges two buildings, near a phone store and a clothing alteration shop, Dunkley said. When the attacker fell, the officer immediately began giving him CPR.

Michael Dunkley, 57, who runs a coffee shop at the mall, said he witnessed the moment the police officer apprehended the attacker. The officer told the man to stop and put the knife down, then he lunged forward with his weapon. The attacker “didn’t say anything,” Dunkley said. “He seemed determined.”

The police “became aware of who we believe the offender is,” but have not formally identified him, the New South Wales police commissioner said. “If it is in fact the person we that believe it is, then we don’t have fears for that person holding an ideation — in other words, it’s not a terrorism incident,” she said.

The shopping mall will be closed tomorrow as police conduct their investigation.

“It looked like he was on a killing spree,” said a witness, describing the moment that a police officer fatally shot the attacker. “If she didn’t shoot him, he would have kept going.”

The police commisioner added that it did not appear that the victims were specifically targeted. Among those injured in the attack was a 9-month-old baby, who has been in surgery.

The victims are five women and one man. Five people died at at the scene, and one woman died later in a hospital.

The attacker was a 40-year-old man, said Karen Webb, the police commissioner for New South Wales. The police believed they knew his identity but were still in the process of confirming it, she said.

People evacuated from the shopping center said they were terrified as they huddled in place. “I thought I was going to die,” one woman told the national broadcaster, ABC, adding that she saw a woman lying on the floor in the Chanel store. “It was insanity.”

Routine bus routes have been rerouted around the Bondi Junction area, with transport authorities warning of lengthy delays.

Local officials have postponed several events in the area in response to the police investigation, they said, including a concert at Bondi Beach and a film night at a nearby park.

Tourists wandering the sprawling mall for gifts. Beachgoers picking up sunscreen before heading to the water. Friends meeting for coffee.

Bondi Junction, the area of Sydney, Australia, where Saturday’s stabbings took place, is a bustling hub that regularly draws crowds on weekends. They can go to the glossy Westfield mall complex and buy from high-end stores like Chanel and Gucci, catch a film at the cinema or buy their weekly groceries at major retailers.

The New South Wales Police commissioner, Karen Webb, will address the media at 8:30 p.m. local time (in about half an hour), the police said in a statement.

One more person injured in the attack has died, taking the total number of stabbing victims from five to six, according to a statement from the New South Wales police.

Mass acts of violence are rare in Australia. In 2019, a gunman killed four people in Darwin, in the Northern Territory. In 2017, six people died in Melbourne’s central business district when a driver plowed his car into a pedestrian zone. And in Sydney in 2014, a gunman held 18 people hostage in a cafe in a 16-hour standoff, which ended with the deaths of two hostages and the gunman.

“This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at the innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday, doing their shopping,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese praised the courage of the police officer who confronted and shot the attacker. “She’s certainly a hero; there’s no doubt she saved lives through her actions,” he said.

“The devastating scenes at Bondi Junction are beyond words and understanding,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at a news conference on Saturday evening. “Australians will be shocked this evening.”