New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said in an official statement that at least six people were hurt in a knife incident at a supermarket in Auckland, Al Jazeera has reported. The attacker was killed within 60 seconds after beginning the attack, she said. Ardern further added that the had been inspired by the ISIS group.
“It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” Ardern said. She described the attacker as a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011. “He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”
Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said the man was acting alone and police were confident there was no further threat to the public, Reuters has reported.
“We were doing absolutely everything possible to monitor him and indeed the fact that we were able to intervene so quickly, in roughly 60 seconds, shows just how closely we were watching him,” Coster said.
Videos of panicked people in the shopping mall after the attack has gone viral on social media.
