Five killed in Sydney shopping mall attack, alleged offender shot dead

Five people and a suspect were killed in a Sydney shopping centre stabbing attack on Saturday that left multiple people, including a small child, injured, police said.

A single person began stabbing people in the mall, attacking nine people, before a police inspector shot him, Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. Five victims died, he said.

Cooke said the suspect acted alone and there was "no continuing threat.” He said officials didn’t know who the offender was yet, and there was no indication of motivation.

"This is quite raw,” he said.

Hundreds of people were reportedly evacuated from the mall.

ABC TV in Australia reported that police evacuated shoppers at Westfield Shopping Centre in Bondi Junction, which is in the city's eastern suburbs.

A New South Wales ambulance spokesperson said that one of the two alleged offenders had been shot by police and they were searching for the other, ABC reported. The spokesperson said people were still inside the shopping centre.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that four people died in a stabbing. Police couldn’t be immediately reached to confirm the report. The newspaper said one person was also shot, but it wasn’t clear if the person had died.

Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the shopping centre, and people streaming out. ABC reported that armed police were searching a rooftop parking lot.

Paramedics were treating patients at the scene.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

"And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. "Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”

Associated Press