Wellington (NewZealand): The New Zealand Police on Friday shot dead a “violent extremist”, who was inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), after he stabbed six people at a supermarket in Auckland, said Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Calling it a ‘terror attack’, Ardern said that the attacker, whose identity has not been revealed yet, was under the radar of the police and had been living in New Zealand for the past 10 years.
“A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders,” said Ardern at a media briefing, as reported by Reuters. “He obviously was a supporter of ISIS ideology”.
Meanwhile, the New Zealand Police believes that the man had gone to the supermarket for shopping but he instead pulled out a large knife and started “running around like a lunatic” stabbing people. It said that the man was “acting alone”.
“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,” Reuters quoted Police Commissioner Andrew Coster as saying.
New Zealand has been on alert after supremacist gunman killed more than 50 people at two mosques in Christchurch in 2019. However, officials have denied the possibility that Friday’s attack “could have been revenge for the 2019 mosque shootings”.
“It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith. He alone carries the responsibility for these acts,” Ardern was quoted as saying by Reuters. “It would be wrong to direct any frustration to anyone beyond this individual”.
Meanwhile, officials have said that out of the six wounded people, three are in critical condition. On the other hand, one person is in serious condition while two others are in moderate condition.
Bureau Report
Leave a Reply