Six-story shopping mall in Sydney

Joel Cauchi, a 40-year-old man from the northeast state of Queensland, entered a six-story shopping mall in Sydney's eastern suburbs on Saturday with a knife and stabbed several people, killing six people (five women and one man) and injuring at least twelve more.

On Saturday afternoon local time, police were called to Westfield Bondi Junction and witnesses described scenes of panic following reports of multiple people stabbed. later, he was confronted and shot dead by a senior policewoman Amy Scott. Among the victims was a mother of a nine-month-old child who lost her life defending her against the attacker. Yixuan Cheng, a 27-year-old Chinese national, was also identified as the sixth fatality. A brave security guard attempted to intervene and was fatally stabbed. He died later.

Joel had recently moved to Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, from neighboring Queensland. while Joel had not been arrested or charged with any crimes in Queensland, he had been diagnosed with mental health issues and in contact with police frequently in the past four to five years according to Queensland police.

"There is still to this point nothing that we have, no information we received, no evidence we have recovered or intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise," New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told reporters. such attacks are rare in Australia because of some of the world's toughest gun and knife laws.

mall
Image: The Times

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the attack as “unspeakable” and “really just beyond comprehension”. he said "People going about their Saturday afternoon shopping should be safe, shouldn’t be at risk. But tragically, we saw a loss of life, and people will be grieving for loved ones today. We also know there are many people still in hospital dealing with recovery, and our thoughts and prayers are with them”.

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