A knife-wielding attacker yesterday stabbed four people in a New Zealand supermarket, critically injuring three, in a rampage authorities said was “random” and not terror-related.
Police said the attack — highly unusual in the normally peaceful nation — occurred at a Countdown supermarket in central Dunedin at 2:30pm and that a man had been taken into custody.
Witnesses told local media a man carrying two knives stabbed staff in the supermarket, and bystanders who tried to stop him were also injured.
The most recent mass-casualty attack in New Zealand was the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshipers and severely injured another 40.
‘RANDOM ATTACK’
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said her first question to police was whether the Dunedin attack had national security implications, but they assured her it did not.
“At this stage, there’s nothing to suggest from the police’s perspective that this is what they would define as a domestic terror event,” Ardern told reporters.
Southern Police District Commander Paul Basham characterized the incident as a “random attack” and said the perpetrator would appear in court today.
Authorities initially reported five people were stabbed, but later revised it down to four, with Basham saying that the attacker received a minor injury during the incident.
HEROIC DEEDS
He described the actions of those who stopped the man as “nothing short of heroic,” saying that they had prevented more injuries.
Basham said three of the victims were due to undergo surgery last night.
Countdown managing director Spencer Sonn said everyone at the supermarket chain was “shocked and devastated” by the attack.
New Zealand introduced tough gun laws in the wake of the Christchurch attack to limit access to firearms.
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