One person was shot and several people stabbed on Saturday afternoon at a crowded major shopping mall in Sydney, prompting police to declare a serious incident and evacuate the area.
New South Wales Police speak authorities received reports of multiple people stabbed shortly before 4 p.m. Multiple images and videos on social media showed groups of people trying to help bloody victims and others fleeing the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping center as alarms sounded or taking refuge in areas area of the shopping center. Some shops inside behind closed shutters. The attack happened on a sunny Saturday during rush hour during the school holidays.
Police did not immediately provide information on the condition of the victims or say whether any suspects were in custody. Media reports quoted panicked shoppers fleeing the mall after hearing about the attacks. Some people described hearing gunshots as they huddled in fear in the back room.
Video from inside the mall shows a man wearing dark shorts and a dark shirt chasing people with a knife in his right hand, catching people unaware until they start running hide from him. One video shows a man at the top of an escalator trying to stop the attacker from continuing his rampage, while others show bloodied victims on the polished tile floor – in some cases There were shoppers and police tending to people’s wounds.
Aerial footage in news reports showed injured people being taken out of the building on stretchers.
Bondi Junction is a busy commercial area in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs, an affluent area near the seafront, and the shopping center is a popular destination for families and teenagers. At the time of major renovations in 2005, Westfield at Bondi Junction describe is one of the largest shopping malls in the Southern Hemisphere.
This is an evolving story.
