Five people and a suspect killed in a stabbing attack at a Sydney shopping centre, police say

SYDNEY – Five people and a suspect were killed Saturday in a stabbing attack at a Sydney shopping center that injured several people, including a small child, police said.

One person started stabbing people at the mall and attacked nine people before a police inspector shot him, Assistant Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. There were five casualties, he said.

Cooke said the suspect acted alone and there was “no ongoing threat.” He said officials did not yet know who the perpetrator was and there was no indication of motivation.

“This is pretty raw,” he said.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

SYDNEY (AP) — Several people were stabbed and police shot someone at a busy Sydney shopping center on Saturday, media reports said.

ABC TV in Australia reported on Saturday that police had evacuated shoppers at the Westfield Shopping Center in Bondi Junction, in the city’s eastern suburbs. A New South Wales ambulance spokesperson said one of the two alleged perpetrators had been shot by police and they were searching for the other, ABC reported. According to the spokesperson, there were still people in the shopping center.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that four people were killed in a stabbing. Police could not immediately be reached to confirm the report. The newspaper said one person had also been shot, but it was not clear whether the person had died.

Video showed many ambulances and police cars around the mall, and people pouring out. ABC reported that armed police searched a rooftop parking lot.

Paramedics treated patients at the scene.

Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the station that he took shelter 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 knowledgeable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. Then she locked the store and let us through the back and now we’re gone.”