A man was shot dead after stabbing six people to death at a busy Sydney shopping center Saturday, according to the authorities.
As hundreds flew the scene, eight people were injured including a 9-months old child.
The 40-year-old was stopped in the knifing attack at the Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city’s eastern suburbs when a police inspector shot him after he turned and raised a knife.
“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.”
Six of the victims, five women and a man — and the suspect died. Commissioner Karen Webb said the eight injured people were being treated at hospitals.
“We are confident that there is no ongoing risk, and we are dealing with one person who is now deceased,” Webb said in a later briefing. She added: “It’s not a terrorism incident.”
Some witnesses were shocked at the rare outburst of violence. Australia enacted strict gun laws after a man killed 35 and wounded another 23 in 1996, in Tasmania.
Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping center, and people streaming out, many with children in their arms.
Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.
