Man who stabbed seven people at New Zealand supermarket is named
The man who stabbed seven people at a New Zealand supermarket has been named as Ahamed Samsudeen.
The 32-year-old had been assessed by authorities as such a high risk that he was being monitored by up to 30 police officers in the weeks leading up to the attack.
Samsudeen, who had arrived in New Zealand from Sri Lanka in 2011 on a student visa, had been charged a number of times with offences such as possessing knives and extremist publications.
In May 2017, he was also arrested at Auckland Airport where police suspected he was heading for Syria.
New Zealand Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told reporters on Saturday that the man had caught the attention of police in 2016 when he expressed extremist views and shared violent videos online.
Between then and Friday’s attack, he spent three years in jail in relation to a number of charges, before being released in July this year under certain conditions.
Ms Ardern said surveillance had started “immediately” after his release but Mr Coster said that despite officers being “very good at what they do”, they faced an extremely difficult job.
Their subject “had demonstrated a high level of paranoia about surveillance activity” – he was so paranoid that he had previously challenged members of the public who he thought were following him.
Auckland is also under COVID-19 restrictions, and fewer people on the streets meant officers found it more difficult to follow the man closely without being noticed.
Police had been monitoring the attacker since his release from custody in July. Pic: AP
This meant that they had not been able to move around Lynnmall’s Countdown supermarket with him on Friday afternoon.
Mr Coster said there had been “nothing unusual” about the attacker’s routine as he travelled to the supermarket by train, grabbed a trolley and shopped as normal for 10 minutes.
But then he is believed to have taken a knife from the shelves of the store before stabbing people at random.
Mr Coster said that the man was shot dead by police 60 seconds after the officers became aware of shouting and people running away, although the first stabbing had occurred up to 90 seconds before then, he said.
Five victims remain in hospital – three of them in a critical condition and two stable – while two others were treated in hospital and are recovering at home.
Ms Ardern said there were many details yet to be released about the attacker and the efforts to keep him detained.
She also indicated she would continue her stance on not mentioning the names of terrorists, something she made a point of after a terrorist killed 51 people at two mosques in the South Island city of Christchurch two years ago.
She said on Saturday: “No terrorist alive or deceased deserves their name to be shared for the infamy they are seeking.”
Ms Ardern also talked about efforts to introduce a law that would have allowed the prosecution of those planning to commit terrorist acts.
A draft bill was introduced in April, with its first reading in May, and there were efforts to speed up its passage even on the day of the attack.
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NZ terror attack witness ‘lucky to even be here’
The bill was not brought about specifically to deal with the attacker, Ms Ardern said, but she acknowledged that, as his release had drawn nearer in July, it had appeared that under current laws, “we were reaching the point where all legal avenues were exhausted”.
When asked if such a bill could have kept the attacker in custody for longer and, therefore, possibly prevented the stabbings, she said: “I don’t think it’s fair to make an assumption that law change itself would have made a difference in this case.”
She revealed that, at times, there had been “up to 30” police officers monitoring the attacker for the 53 days between his release into the community and the stabbings.
But she added: “When you have a highly motivated lone actor like this individual, it is incredibly tough.”
Mr Coster said that officers at the scene had “acted exactly the way we would have expected them to… with great bravery and professionalism”.
He also praised members of the public who had been in the supermarket, many of whom tried to help the victims, including one who had advanced medical training.
Ms Ardern encouraged New Zealanders to “be kind” to those affected by the attack, adding: “Please wrap your arms around all of our victims – those of yesterday and those of the past.”
At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.
Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.
State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.
At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.
The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).
A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.
The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.
Pic: AP
Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.
Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.
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‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike
US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.
Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.
According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.
It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.
World
Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks
President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.
In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.
Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.
“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”
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He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”
Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.
General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.
Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”
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Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.
NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.
EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’
Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.
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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?
Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.
At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.
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