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WELLINGTON – New Zealand police today shot and killed a “violent extremist” known to them, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, after he stabbed and wounded at least six people at a supermarket in the city of Auckland.
“A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders,” she told a briefing.
The attacker was a Sri Lankan national who had been in New Zealand for 10 years, and had been a “person of interest” for about five years, she said.
The man was killed within 60 seconds of beginning the attack, said Ardern, adding that he had been inspired by the Islamic State militant group.
“It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith. He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”
Police, in a statement earlier, said: “Police can confirm that a man has entered a New Lynn supermarket and injured multiple people.
“Police have located the man, and he has been shot. He has died at the scene.”
Emergency services said five ambulances and three rapid response units were deployed to the scene.
Of the six wounded, three are in critical condition and one in serious condition, said the St John ambulance service in a statement to Reuters.
Witnesses told reporters outside the mall that they saw several people lying on the floor with stab wounds. Other said they heard gunshots as they ran out of the supermarket.
Videos posted online show panicked shoppers running out of the mall and looking for cover as the situation unfolded.
New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019.
In May, four people were stabbed at a supermarket in Dunedin, South Island. – Reuters, September 3, 2021