‘Run, run’: 6 stabbed to death at Australia mall; suspect killed
SYDNEY — A man stabbed five women and a man to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday before he was fatally shot, police said, with hundreds fleeing the chaotic scene, many weeping as they carried their children. Eight people, including a 9-month-old, were injured.
New South Wales police said they believed a 40-yearold man was responsible for the attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, in the city’s eastern suburbs and not far from the world-famous Bondi Beach. They said they were not able to give his name until a formal identification had taken place, but they weren’t treating the attack as terrorism-related.
The man was shot dead by a police inspector after he turned and raised a knife, Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters.
The shopping center is one of the country’s busiest.
“They just said run, run, run — someone’s been stabbed,” one witness told ABC TV in Australia. The attacker “was walking really calmly like he was having an ice cream in a park. And then he went up the escalators ... and probably within about a minute we heard three gunshots.”
Witnesses were shocked at the rare outburst of violence. Australia enacted strict gun laws after a man killed 35 and wounded 23 in Tasmania in 1996.
Biden wins in Wyoming:
President Joe Biden nudged further ahead in the Democratic nomination for reelection by winning the party caucuses in Wyoming and was the only choice on the ballot later Saturday in Alaska.
As two of the least populated states, Alaska and Wyoming play minuscule roles in intraparty and general election voting in presidential election years.
Alaska will allocate 15 pledged delegates based on the vote; Wyoming has 17 delegates.
Biden effectively clinched the nomination March 12 with the Georgia primary and is all but certain to face former President Donald Trump as the Republican nominee in November.
Turkey cable-car rescue:
The last of 174 people stranded in cable cars high above a mountain in southern Turkey were brought to safety Saturday, nearly 23 hours after one pod hit a pole and burst open, killing one person and injuring seven when they plummeted to the rocks below.
On Saturday afternoon, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced the successful completion of the rescue operation on X.
Ten helicopters and 607 search-and-rescue personnel were involved. Helicopters with night-vision capabilities rescued people throughout the night.
The stranded people had been stuck on the Tunektepe cable car, just outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya, since 5:30 p.m. Friday, when the accident occurred.
“The night was awful, we were very scared. There were children with us, they passed out,” Hatice Polat of Istanbul said. “It was torture being up there for seven hours. It is swaying every second, you’re constantly in fear . ... It was very traumatic.”
Friday was the final day of a three-day public holiday in Turkey marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which sees families flock to coastal resorts.
The cable car carries tourists from Konyaalti beach to
a restaurant and viewing platform at the summit of the 2,010-foot Tunektepe peak. It is run by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
The cable car line was completed in 2017 and receives a major inspection around the beginning of the year, as well as routine inspections throughout the year. The cause of the incident is being investigated.
A Maine police officer accused of lying about a missingperson case was charged with several crimes, including falsifying a report in which he claimed to have taken the missing man to a hospital in January.
Washburn Police Sgt. Chandler Cole resigned after being charged with aggravated forgery, tampering with public records or information, falsifying physical evidence and unsworn falsification, according to court records. He was arrested March 29.
Cole said he had no comment when reached by
Maine officer charged:
The Associated Press.
An investigation concluded that Cole altered his report to reflect a hospital drop-off of Erik Foote. But there is no hospital record to support the claim. Foote has yet to be located.
The town is deciding whether to keep a police department. The police chief retired Jan. 31, Cole resigned in February, and a young officer is working elsewhere, Town Manager Donna Turner said.
For now, the Aroostook County Sheriff ’s Office is providing coverage.
Pakistan violence: Pakistani police searched for gunmen who killed nine people after abducting them from a bus on a highway in the country’s southwest. The same attackers earlier killed two people and wounded six in another car they forced to stop.
The abductions took place Friday in Baluchistan province, which has long been the scene of an insurgency by separatists fighting for
independence.
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack.
It said it had information from sources that plainclothed spies were on the bus, according to a statement from the group. The gunmen killed the nine men after checking their ID cards to ensure that they were intelligence officers. The group offered no evidence to support the allegation that spies were on the bus.
Earlier Saturday, Habibullah Mosakhail, the deputy commissioner of police, said the gunmen had set up a blockade, stopped the bus and gone through the passengers’ ID cards. They took nine people with them, all from the eastern Punjab province, and fled into the mountains.
Police later recovered nine bodies under a bridge 3 miles from the highway.
On Friday, the same gunmen opened fire at a vehicle that failed to stop for their blockade, killing two and wounding six, police said.
A search for the perpetrators was underway, Mosakhail said. The bus was heading from the provincial capital of Quetta to Taftan, a town bordering Iran.
A Michigan man and his dog were rescued from the icy waters of an inland lake in the state’s Upper Peninsula, authorities said. Three first responders needed medical treatment.
Thad Cooper, 56, of Michigamme Township was searching for his dog Friday afternoon when he saw its head poking above the ice more than 100 yards from shore on Lake Michigamme, the Marquette County Sheriff ’s Office said.
Cooper kayaked onto the lake to try to rescue the dog, but fell in and could not get out.
A sheriff’s dive team reached Cooper with a floatation board and pulled him to shore. The dog was then rescued. Cooper and his dog spent about 90 minutes in the water.