Six people stabbed by ‘violent extremist’ in New Zealand terror attack
A man, inspired by ISIS ideology, who stabbed at least six people in a supermarket was a “violent extremist” known to the police, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said.
The man was shot and killed by police within 60 seconds of beginning his attack at a Countdown store in Auckland.
The man was a Sri Lankan national and had been living in New Zealand since 2011.
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NZ PM on ‘known threat’ attacker
“A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders,” Jacinda Ardern told a briefing on Friday.
The man cannot be named due to a suppression order currently in place.
He had been known to multiple agencies since 2016, with Ms Ardern confirming she had been personally aware of the individual – adding that she was gutted to hear what had happened.
She said: “This was someone who was known to our national security agencies and was of concern and was being monitored constantly. There are very few that fall into this category.”
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.
The attacker was known to police
“There’s someone here with a knife … he’s got a knife,” a woman is heard saying in one video, posted online after the attack.
Another recorded the sound of ten shots being fired in rapid succession.
An injured woman is led away from the supermarket following the attack
“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 said.
Described as a “lone wolf”, Ms Ardern said the attacker was a “supporter of ISIS” and inspired by extremist ideology.
The man was not allowed to be kept in prison by law, she said.
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NZ police patrol site of terror attack
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NZ terror attack witness ‘lucky to even be here’
Of the six wounded people, three were in critical condition, one in serious condition and another in moderate condition, the St John Ambulance Service said in a statement to Reuters.
Ms Ardern said any backlash against the Muslim community “would be wrong”, and said the attacker “is who is responsible, no one else”.
“What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” she added.
The security in the country will remain at a medium level.
Jacinda Ardern said she had personally known of the attacker. Pic: AP
New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15, 2019. In May, four people were stabbed in a supermarket in Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island.
Auckland is on a strict lockdown as it battles an outbreak of the coronavirus. Most businesses are shut and people are generally only allowed to leave their homes to buy groceries, for medical needs, or to exercise.
Father Christmas, driving a sleigh filled with NATO-branded rockets, is shot out of the sky above Moscow in an apparent new piece of Russian propaganda.
“Good, we don’t need anything foreign in our skies,” says a second Santa in Russian, sitting in what appears to be a control room.
Ukraine Centre for Countering Disinformation shared the video, saying that Russia’s “paranoia about the ‘NATO threat’ has reached new heights”.
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Still from apparent Russian propaganda showing Santa over Moscow
Ukrainian journalist Illia Ponomarenko reported that it was released after the Azerbaijani Airlines plane crashed in Kazakhstan on Christmas Day – amid speculation it was shot down by Russian air defences.
Sky News has not yet been able to verify the timing of the video’s release, which appeared on pro-Russian social media channels and not from an official source.
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The video begins with Santa, dressed in red, flying in a sleigh above the Russian capital, saying: “Ho, ho, ho! Hi Russians, here are your presents! Happy New Year!”
It then shows a missile blowing up the sleigh and cuts to the control room, where an alternative Father Christmas dressed in blue asks “Is that it?” and a man in uniform replies: “Yes, the target is destroyed.”
“Good, we don’t need anything foreign in our skies,” the Santa says in response.
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South Korea’s parliament has voted to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo.
The move could deepen a constitutional crisis triggered by a short-lived period of martial law declared by Mr Han’s predecessor, Yoon Suk Yeol.
After the vote on Friday, Mr Han said he will step aside to avoid more chaos.
The opposition brought impeachment proceedings against him over his refusal to immediately fill three places on South Korea’s Constitutional Court – where the former president is on trial.
Three justices had been approved by parliament – where the opposition Democratic Party has a majority – but Mr Han said he would not formally appoint them without bipartisan agreement.
South Korea’s constitution says that six justices on the nine-member Constitutional Court must agree to remove an impeached president, meaning the current justices must vote unanimously to remove Mr Yoon.
The court has said it can deliberate without the full nine-member bench.
Leader of the opposition Lee Jae-myung had vowed to go ahead with the impeachment, accusing Mr Han of “acting for insurrection”.
A man waves a South Korean flag at an anti-Yoon Suk Yeol protest. Pic: AP
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Now that Mr Han – who is also prime minister – has been impeached, his finance minister Choi Sang-mok is set to take over as acting president.
Politicians in the 300 parliament voted 192-0 to impeach him. Governing party politicians boycotted the vote.
Following the vote, Mr Han said he would respect the decision and will await a ruling from the Constitutional Court on the impeachment motion.
Mr Han will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him – the same as with Mr Yoon.
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