Police in New Zealand kill ‘extremist’ who stabbed six in supermarket

New Zealand police have shot and killed a "violent extremist" who was known to the police, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said, after he stabbed and injured at least six people in a supermarket in the city of Auckland.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says she is "absolutely gutted" after a Sri Lankan immigrant who was known to local authorities injured six people in an "extremist" terror attack at an Auckland shopping centre this afternoon. The terrorist is known only as "S" because of a 2018 suppression order, which the Crown urgentlt applied to the High Court to have revoked.

In the wake of the attack at a supermarket in Auckland by a Sri Lankan national, the New Zealand High Commission in Colombo said that ‘New Zealand’s Sri Lankan community is, and will always be, an integral and treasured part of Kiwi society’.

As Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has stated, the perpetrator alone bears responsibility for these acts. The attack was carried out by an individual, not a faith, ethnicity or culture.”

"A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders," Ms Ardern told a briefing.

The attacker was a Sri Lankan national who had been in New Zealand for 10 years and had been a "person of interest" for about five years, she said.

The man was killed within 60 seconds of beginning the attack, she said, adding that he had been inspired by the Islamic State militant group.

"It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith," Ms Ardern said.

"He alone carries the responsibility for these acts."

She said the man had been in prison but authorities had to release him as there was no legal reason to keep him in custody.

New Zealand's opposition National Party leader Judith Collins said the attack needed to be viewed as a "terrorist issue" and not a "religious issue".

"Please remember that the ISIS-inspired terrorist is no more representative of Muslim Kiwis than the Australian white supremacist who murdered people in the Christchurch mosque attacks," she tweeted.

Police following the man thought he had gone into the New Lynn supermarket to do some shopping but he pulled out what one witness described as a large knife and started stabbing people.

"We were doing absolutely everything possible to monitor him and indeed the fact that we were able to intervene so quickly, in roughly 60 seconds, shows just how closely we were watching him," Police Commissioner Andrew Coster told the briefing.

Friday’s attack came as more than 1.7 million people in Auckland remained under stringent coronavirus restrictions amid concerns about the delta variant, which are expected to remain in place for another two weeks as officials work to contain the spread of infection. Under current rules, people can only leave their houses to get a coronavirus test, exercise locally or to shop for essentials such as medicine and groceries.

The country was placed into full nationwide lockdown August 17, after new cases of the delta variant were recorded. Those in areas outside of Auckland are under a less restrictive lockdown. Violent incidents in the island nation of 5 million people are rare. New Zealand tightened gun laws in 2019, less than 24 hours after an Australian man opened fire at two mosques in Christchurch and killed 51 worshipers with weapons that included an assault rifle.