Bystanders stop frenzied knife attack

AUCKLAND: Police praised “heroic” bystanders for disrupting a frenzied knife attack at a New Zealand grocery store yesterday.

A man wielding two knives allegedly stabbed four people, three critically, before he was restrained by onlookers and held until police arrived at the supermarket in Dunedin, on South Island.

Surveillance footage showed the actions of the bystanders were “nothing short of heroic”, said New Zealand Police Superintendent Paul Basham.

“Those that intervened, some of whom became injured themselves, I think have acted selflessly and with great courage to prevent this man from hurting anybody else,” he said.

Violent incidents in the island nation are rare. New Zealand tightened gun laws in 2019, after a man opened fire at two mosques.