Six people dead and more injured after 'multiple stabbings’ at shopping centre near Bondi Beach in Sydney

Six people have now died and more have been injured in a knife attack in a shopping centre near Australia’s Bondi beach, according to reports.

Australian media said four people had died and more had been injured by a man stabbing people at the Westfield Bondi Junction centre in Sydney. ABC News reported that seven people had been taken to hospital, including a nine-month-old baby.

New South Wales Police (NSW) said it believes the offender in the attack “acted alone”. Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police, said: “I am content that there is no continuing threat; our police, as I said, have commenced investigations into the matter which will continue through the evening.

“I do not have details of victims who have been killed by this individual, nor those who have been conveyed to hospital for treatment – so I cannot provide you further information into relation to them, only to say very clearly our hearts go out to all of them, as they do (to) anyone touched by this incident this afternoon.

“I do not have information in relation to the offender – I do not know, at this stage, who he is, you would understand this is quite raw. Inquiries are very new and we continue to make attempts to identify the offender in this matter.”

He continued: “A man walked into Westfield at Bondi Junction, he left the centre very shortly after and returned at about 20 past three; as he moved through the centre he engaged with about nine people. It is clear that during that engagement he caused harm to those people, we believe by stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.

“Very clearly a range of reports were made on the incident, police attended promptly – a single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, (and) went into the centre directed by a range of people. She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five. As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.”

An eyewitness of the Sydney attack said he was near in a cafe with his two small children when he saw a man “stabbing people indiscriminately”. ABC News Australia spoke to the witness, who did not want to be identified, and reported: “He saw a bloke in a green shirt start stabbing people indiscriminately, he handed off his kids to his wife who escaped before he started trying to help a woman who had been stabbed outside.

“He said he saw screaming, screaming and it didn’t seem that long before we heard the boom, boom, boom of the gunshot and we thought and hoped that it was the police. The security guard, he said, was dying 10 metres away. He grabbed towels there, and there were three people dying right around him (the eyewitness).

“It was just carnage, was how he described the situation as it unfolded, he was very much there after he sent his children and his wife to safety. The first responders didn’t realise they were coming in to see multiple critical people, and added the cops were just unreal.”

An unamed shopper also told ABC News that she “thought she was going to die”. She said: “I was hiding in the backroom. I was hearing gunshots. It’s just the worst thing ever, who does that to people? I saw a woman lying on the floor in Chanel.

“I didn’t see him properly, I was running. It’s just insanity – I wasn’t expecting it. I thought I was going to die. Every moment was playing through my head, I was so scared.”

Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: “I have been briefed by the AFP (Australian Federal Police) on the devastating events at Bondi Junction. Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones. Our hearts go out to those injured and we offer our thanks to those caring for them as well as our brave police and first responders.”

NSW police said they do not know of “any motive or any ideology” at this stage. Asked by reporters if he would rule out terrorism, Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of the force, said “we’re not ruling anything out”.