Bondi mass murder not “terrorism”

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ANTHONY KLAN

The Bondi Junction mass murder was “not a terrorism incident”, NSW Police have said, as the tragedy makes headlines around the world.

The rugby league jersey wearing attacker murdered six people — overnight the mother of a nine-month baby, also stabbed, died in hospital — with several others seriously injured.

Fronting media last night, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the 40-year-old attacker — who has not yet been formally identified — had previously been known to police.

“If he is the person that we believe, then we don’t have fears of that person holding an ideation. In other words, it’s not a terrorism incident,” Webb said.

Police have not said whether the man was a resident of the area. He started attacking people with a knife at Bondi Junction’s Westfield Shopping Centre at about 3.30pm yesterday.

Webb told media the officer who shot the attacker, and who has asked not to be named at the moment, was “doing well under the circumstances”.

“She showed enormous courage and bravery,” Webb said.

The officer is to be formally interviewed today.

The man was fatally shot by the senior officer. Source: Supplied

Webb said the shopping centre, about 4km from Sydney’s famed Bondi Beach, will remained closed and that the crime scene will “remain ongoing for a number of days”.

The man attacked people on the top two levels of the six-level shopping centre, one of the most affluent malls in the nation.

Australia has extremely low levels of mass murder events, in part due to strict gun ownership laws. The rarity of the event has seen it gain major coverage internationally.

“The incident has shocked Australia, a nation where mass killings are extremely uncommon,” The Washington Post reports.

“There were 79 victims of homicide and related offenses in 2022 in New South Wales, a state of more than 8 million people.

“The most common homicide weapon was a knife, partly due to Australia’s tight gun restrictions”.

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The Klaxon discusses the tragedy with India’s Wion news network. Source: Wion

France’s Le Monde reports: “This type of attack is extremely rare in Australia. In November 2018, an individual armed with a knife killed one person and injured two others on a Melbourne street, before being shot dead by police. The crime was claimed by the Islamic State organisation”.

Qatar’s Al Jazeera reports: “Such attacks are rare in Australia, which has some of the world’s toughest gun and knife laws”.

Among the dead is a 38-year-old mother who died of her injuries last night.

He and her nine-month old baby were both stabbed by the attacker.

The injured baby was taken to the Sydney Children’s Hospital at Randwick, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.

The Klaxon reports on the tragedy last night. Source: The Klaxon

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park praised the “skill and the sheer courage” of police and paramedics.

“People are alive today because of their work,” he told media this morning.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last night said the attack was an “horrific act of violence”.

“The devastating scenes at Bondi Junction are beyond words or understanding,” Albanese said at a press conference in Canberra.

“This was a horrific act of violence indiscriminately targeted at innocent people going about an ordinary Saturday doing their shopping”.

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Anthony Klan

Editor, The Klaxon