Six victims have died after a man armed with a knife carried out a frenzied stabbing attack in a Sydney mall packed with Saturday shoppers.
New South Wales Police say a sole police officer responded to emergency calls from within Bondi Junction Westfield mall and shot the attacker dead, saving many lives.
Eight victims have been hospitalised with knife wounds, including a 9-month-old baby. The youngest victim was undergoing surgery.
New South Wales Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb tonight confirmed four women and one man had died in the shopping centre and one woman had since died in hospital.
She said the attacker was a 40-year-old man. A formal identification was yet to take place but he was known to law enforcement.
However, Webb said given his identity, they did not believe it was an act of terrorism.
Earlier NSW Police said it was not possible to indicate a possible motive for the rampage.
Story continues after the liveblog
Story continues
Webb said police had secured the crime scene and the mall would remain closed tomorrow.
She praised many of the shopkeepers and those inside the shopping centre who showed amazing bravery.
The policewoman who confronted the knifeman was doing well under the circumstances and would be interviewed tomorrow.
Officials have told ABC News eight people were taken to hospital with stab wounds, including a nine-month-old baby who has been taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick.
A man was shot after multiple people were stabbed at the shopping centre in Sydney’s eastern suburbs about 3.40pm local time, AAP reported.
“A major incident has been declared following reports of multiple people killed at Westfield Bondi Junction Shopping Centre this afternoon”, 9 News Sydney wrote on X.
There were reports of multiple stabbings with up to six people dead, the news organisation said.
A man armed with a knife walks inside the Bondi shopping mall.
One video shot inside the mall during the attack showed a person brandishing an object - possibly a bollard - towards the alleged attacker away as he came up towards the person on the escalator.
“This guys a legend, blocking the Bondi Junction Westfields attacker. Hope he made it out alive,” an X user posted.
A NSW police spokesperson told AAP there were reports that multiple people had been stabbed and one man had been shot.
“Paramedics are treating patients at the scene. Multiple posts on social media show crowds of people outside the shopping centre, with reports it is in lockdown.”
Footage taken at the scene shows shoppers running for their lives across a glass pedestrian bridge.
Still taken from 9News coverage showing heavily armed police entering Bondi Westfield from the roof. Photo / 9News
The Daily Telegraph reported witnesses saying a man was “chasing and slashing people with a knife”.
The outlet reported he was later shot by police.
The offender’s first victims were a woman and her child, according to the Telegraph.
Ricardo Goncalves wrote on X that he heard what sounded like gunshots and saw people running away.
Dozens of emergency service crews are currently on the scene.
ABC reporter Danuta Kozaki said on X that NSW police were searching the mall’s rooftop area and Waverley Council posted on X that there were reports of multiple stabbings at the mall.
One man told a 9 News reporter he had helped a mother and baby who were both stabbed.
”The baby got stabbed. The mum got stabbed and the mum came over with the baby and threw it at me … it looked pretty bad”, the man said.
”There was a lot of blood on the floor.
”Another man, who had interrupted the reporter during a live broadcast to point out the hero as “that man there saved the baby”, spoke of the traumatic scene
”We just tried help with holding the baby and to compress the baby, and staying with the mother and trying to compress the blood.”
Asked by the 9 News reporter what he knew of the baby’s condition, one of the men said he thought it was fine - but he wasn’t sure about the mother.
”Because of the mother holding so well and really compressing I think the baby’s fine. The mother - me and another lady which were compressing [to stop blood loss] - she started to have a lot of blood coming out of her mouth.”
