Praise for heroic officer following Sydney stabbings
A KNIFE attacker killed six people and injured several others in a stabbing spree at a Sydney shopping centre before being shot dead by police.
The lone knifeman attacked shoppers yesterday afternoon Sydney time at the Westfield shopping centre in the suburb of Bondi Junction.
A female New South Wales Police inspector confronted the attacker on her own and shot him dead as he raised a knife and lunged at her.
Police said they had identified the attacker as a 40-year-old man who was known to them, but added that they do not think he was motivated by terrorism.
Four women and a man died in the shopping centre and another woman later died in hospital, police said.
A nine-month-old infant has undergone surgery and eight people, including the child, are in hospitals receiving treatment for “different injuries”. Reports have suggested the woman who died in hospital is the child’s mother.
Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said the police officer “confronted the offender”, adding: “She took the actions that she did saving a range of people. [She was] an inspector, a senior police officer – she was on her own.”
Video online appears to show a shopper confronting the attacker on an escalator with a bollard.
In a social media post, the Prince and Princess of Wales said they were “shocked and saddened” by the stabbings.
The King has said that he and the Queen were “utterly shocked and horrified” and their “hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed”.