WELLINGTON, Sept 3 (Reuters) – New Zealand police on Friday shot and killed a knife-wielding “extremist” who was known to authorities, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in a supermarket.
The attacker, a Sri Lankan national who had been in New Zealand for 10 years, was inspired by the Islamic State militant group and was being monitored constantly, Ardern said.
“A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders,” Ardern told a briefing.
“He obviously was a supporter of ISIS ideology,” she said, referring to Islamic State.
Police following the man thought he had gone into the New Lynn supermarket to do some shopping but picked up a knife from a display and started “running around like a lunatic” stabbing people, shopper Michelle Miller told the Stuff online news outlet.
A witness told the New Zealand Herald the attacker had shouted “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest).
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told the briefing the man was acting alone and police were confident there was no further threat to the public.
Read more at: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/new-zealand-attacker-shot-dead-after-injuring-people-mall-2021-09-03/
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