An attacker inspired by the Islamic State group stabbed six men and women at a New Zealand supermarket on Friday prior to police who had the man below surveillance shot him dead, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern mentioned.
Ardern mentioned the man, a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011 and was on a terror watchlist, entered a buying mall in suburban Auckland, seized a knife from a show and went on a stabbing spree.
She mentioned six men and women had been wounded, 3 critically, prior to police who had been monitoring him opened fire inside 60 seconds of the attack beginning.
“What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong,” she mentioned, adding it was not representative of any faith or neighborhood.
Asked about the man’s motivations, she mentioned: “it was a violent ideology and ISIS-inspired”, utilizing yet another name for the Islamic State group.
Ardern mentioned she was restricted in what she could say publicly about the man, who had been below surveillance given that 2016, simply because he was the topic of court suppression orders.
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster mentioned authorities had been confident the man was acting alone and there was no additional danger to the neighborhood.
New Zealand’s worst terror attack was the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshippers and severely wounded yet another 40
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