Witnesses have described a massacre at a Sydney shopping center on Sunday afternoon when a man attacked several people, including a nine-month-old baby. The attacker stabbed six people to death and was later shot dead by police.
Witness Reese Colmenares told Reuters the baby’s mother was also stabbed and was taken to an ambulance with her baby in her arms.
Colmenares was one of 20 people hiding in a nearby hardware store when she saw people running screaming out of Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre.
“It’s scary, there are young children, old people and people in wheelchairs everywhere,” she said.
“Saw him running with a knife”
Image source: AFP
Pranjul Bokaria was returning from get off work when the riots started. Chaos descended as police swarmed the area, sending shoppers running for their lives and hiding in nearby stores. She escaped through the emergency exit and hid in a back room.
“I’m alive and grateful,” she told AFP.
CCTV cameras inside the mall showed a man wearing an AFL jersey running around the mall with a large knife, while injured people lay lifeless on the floor.
“I saw the whole thing right in front of me. I saw the guy running with the knife and people running away,” a cafe worker inside the mall told AFP.
Twenty minutes after people rushed out of the mall, police teams entered the scene and began sweeping the area to find the attacker.
“He won’t stop”
Image source: AFP
Gunfire rang out in the air and a witness saw a police officer firing at the attacker.
“If she hadn’t shot him, he would have kept going, he was going on a rampage. He had a nice big blade on him. He looked like he was on a killing spree,” he said.
People fleeing informed others of the stabbing. Shoppers crowded into stores waiting for the nightmare to be over. As night fell, the mall was packed with police and ambulances carrying stretchers, preparing to take the injured to hospitals.
Attackers known to law enforcement
Image source: Reuters
New South Wales police did not reveal the identity of the attacker but said he was a 40-year-old man known to law enforcement.
Eight people are in hospital across Sydney, including a baby. In total, the man killed five women and one man.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote on
Police denied the attack was an act of terrorism and said the man acted alone.
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