Extremist Supermarket Stabbing: Watch Your Back This Weekend!

Police in New Zealand shot and killed a "violent extremist" after he stabbed and wounded at least six people in an Auckland supermarket.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the incident was a "terrorist attack" carried out by a Sri Lankan national who was under police surveillance.

The man, who has not been identified, was a supporter of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, Ms. Ardern said. Police killed the man within 60 seconds of the attack on Friday.

"What happened today was despicable, it was hateful it was wrong," Ms. Ardern said in a news conference. "It was carried out by an individual, not a faith."

Of the six wounded people, three are in critical condition and one is in a serious condition, health officials say.

It took place at the Countdown supermarket at LynnMall in the district of New Lynn on Friday afternoon.

The attacker reportedly took a large knife from a display cabinet in the store and went on a stabbing spree. Police surveillance teams had been close by the entire time.

One witness told news outlet Stuff NZ that the supermarket was a scene of hysteria, and footage shared online showed people fleeing before the sound of gunshots could be heard.

The man, whose identity cannot be revealed due to court suppression orders, arrived in New Zealand in October 2011. He became a person of a national security interest in 2016.

He had been under round-the-clock monitoring and heavy surveillance due to concerns about his ideology. He was known to multiple agencies and was also on a terror watchlist.

Ms Ardern said that until Friday, he had not committed any offense. When asked about the man's motivations, she said they were "Isis-inspired". Questions have been raised about why action against him was not taken before six people were injured - especially since he was under close surveillance.

"The reality is, that when you are surveilling someone on a 24/7 basis, it is not possible to be immediately next to them at all times. The staff intervened as quickly as they could and they prevented further injury in what was a terrifying situation," said Police Commissioner Andrew Coster.

He added that the attacker was very surveillance-conscious and that teams needed to maintain a distance to be effective.

Analyst View

There is a growing concern about rising extremism and terrorism globally, the focus on the pandemic and the weakening relationship within key stakeholders in international policing and intelligence is leaving a lot of space for miscreants to penetrate territories and regions that have hitherto been safe.

You need to watch your back this weekend! and in other periods from perpetrators of terror acts because extremists are all over the place from Australia to Afghanistan, Nigeria to Ethiopia, and developed countries.



SOURCE: BBC