Police stated a person had been taken into custody.
Wellington, New Zealand:
A knife-wielding attacker stabbed 5 individuals in a New Zealand grocery store Monday, critically injuring three, however Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern stated it appeared the rampage was not terror associated.
Police stated the assault — extremely uncommon within the usually peaceable South Pacific nation — occurred at a Countdown grocery store in central Dunedin at 2:30pm (0230GMT) and a person had been taken into custody.
Witnesses advised native media a person carrying two knives stabbed employees within the grocery store and bystanders who tried to cease him have been additionally injured.
The most up-to-date mass-casualty assault in New Zealand was the Christchurch mosques shootings in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman murdered 51 Muslim worshippers and severely injured one other 40.
Ardern stated the primary query she requested police was whether or not the Dunedin assault had nationwide safety implications however they assured her it didn’t.
“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,” she advised reporters.
Ardern additionally stated police weren’t searching for anybody else in relation to the assault.
“I want to acknowledge early reports of bystanders who have taken action in order to protect those around them… these are courageous acts and we are thinking of the families,” she stated.
Countdown’s managing director Spencer Sonn stated everybody on the grocery store chain was “shocked and devastated” by the assault.
New Zealand launched powerful gun legal guidelines within the wake of the Christchurch assault to restrict entry to firearms.
(This story has not been edited by DwellNews360 employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
