Knife attack in Sydney: horror and the search for the motive

Six people were killed and several others injured in a knife attack at a shopping center in Sydney. The background to the crime is unclear. The attacker was shot by a policewoman.

Emergency vehicles are parked everywhere in front of the shopping center in Sydney’s east. A reporter from the Australian television station “9News” interviews two eyewitnesses. The two brothers report how they helped a mother who had been stabbed by the attacker. There was blood everywhere. She handed the baby to a brother. The other took care of her. “I stayed with the mother and tried to stop the blood. Then I called the emergency services.”

A young woman made it out and was able to save herself from the attacker. Completely distraught, she tells the Reuters news agency what she experienced shortly before. “I saw a woman lying on the ground… I ran out. It was crazy, just crazy. I didn’t expect that.”

Another man still has horror written on his face. Everyone ran away in one direction – pursued by a man. He tried to attack her with a knife. “We ran into a gym because we were standing in front of it. As we tried to close the door, we heard a gunshot. Now I know it was from the police, but we didn’t know that at the time. “

The perpetrator died from police gunfire

People tried to get to emergency exits or barricade themselves in shops. Surveillance camera footage shows the suspected perpetrator: a young man wearing shorts and a dark T-shirt.

In the evening the police announced the first details. Accordingly, a man ran into the shopping center with a long knife shortly after 3 p.m. local time. He attacked a total of nine people. A police officer caught the attacker, according to a police spokesman. “When she caught up with him, he turned to her and raised the knife. She shot him and he died.”

Initially it was said that five of the victims had died from their injuries. Others are being cared for in hospitals, including a baby. Some are in critical condition. A police spokesman later said one of the injured people had died in hospital.

The background to the crime is still unclear

The police spokesman said it was assumed that the man acted alone. There is no further threat. The police do not yet have any details about the attacker. “There is nothing so far that suggests any motive or ideology.”

The police are not ruling out a terrorist background at this point. The investigation into the crime is ongoing.