At least five killed and several in critical condition after Sydney shopping centre attack
Five people have been killed and several are in a critical condition, including a baby, after stabbings at a shopping centre near Bondi Beach in Sydney.
Police said the attacker who acted alone has been shot dead by an officer who confronted him on her own.
Authorities said they do not know who the suspect is, nor the motive of the attack, but confirmed there is no longer a threat.
Hundreds of people were evacuated from the Westfield Bondi Junction shopping centre.
An ambulance spokesperson said people were still inside the building.
The attack took place at Westfield Bondi Junction. Pic: AP
Anthony Cooke, assistant commissioner of New South Wales Police Force, said that a man walked into the centre, left then returned at 3.20pm (local time) as he proceeded through the centre where he “engaged with about nine people”.
Mr Cooke added: “A single unit officer, inspector of police, was nearby, attended, (and) went into the centre directed by a range of people.
“She confronted the offender who had moved, by this stage, to level five.
“As she continued to walk quickly behind to catch up with him he turned to face her, raised a knife, she discharged a firearm and that person is now deceased.”
Mr Cooke said the wounded were taken to hospital, and one of them is a “small child”.
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Police urged people to avoid the area.
A shopper said she thought she was “going to die”.
She told ABC News: “I was hiding in the backroom. I was hearing gunshots. It’s just the worst thing ever, who does that to people?
“I saw a woman lying on the floor in Chanel.
“I didn’t see him properly, I was running. It’s just insanity – I wasn’t expecting it.
“I thought I was going to die. Every moment was playing through my head, I was so scared.”
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‘I thought I was going to die’
Waverley Council said on X: “A critical incident has commenced following the shooting of a male at Bondi Junction. Just before 4pm today, emergency services were called to Westfield Bondi Junction following reports of multiple people stabbed. People are urged to avoid the area.”
Witness Roi Huberman, an ABC sound engineer, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.
“And suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked. She then locked the store and then she then let us through the back and now we are out.”
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Tragically, multiple casualties have been reported and the first thoughts of all Australians are with those affected and their loved ones.”
Mr Cooke said he had not seen anything like this incident in Sydney before and that “this is a very difficult circumstance”.
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At least 25 Palestinians have been killed, and 50 injured, after Israeli tanks are said to have fired on tents sheltering displaced families in Rafah, according to health officials and emergency workers in Gaza.
Witnesses said the latest attack in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, took place in Mawasi, western Rafah, a rural area on the Mediterranean coast that has become filled with makeshift tents.
One resident told Reuters: “Two tanks climbed a hilltop overseeing Mawasi and they sent balls of fire that hit the tents of the poor people displaced in the area.”
Palestinians in the aftermath of the attack that left at least 25 dead. Pic: AP
Pic: AP
Witnesses whose relatives died in the attack near a Red Cross field hospital told The Associated Press that Israeli forces fired a second volley that killed people when they came out of their tents.
The locations of the attacks, provided by Civil Defence first responders, appear to be just outside an Israeli-designated safe zone on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said the nearby hospital was flooded with casualties after the attack.
Hasan al Najjar, whose two sons were killed in the shelling, said: “We had a strike. My two sons left after they heard the women and children screaming.
“They went to save the women and that’s when they struck the second missile, and my sons were martyred.
“They struck the place twice.”
A local hospital saw an influx of patients after the attack. Pic: AP
Mourners surround one of the dead. Pic: AP
Mona Ashour, who lost her husband, said: “We were inside our tent when a sound bomb exploded near the Red Cross tents.
“My husband went outside at the first explosion.
“Then, a second bomb went off, even closer to the Red Cross door, and people began to gather.
“I tried to communicate with my husband but was unable to.
“We fled as we were in our clothes, barefoot. I tried to communicate with him but could not.”
The Israeli military said it was looking into the strikes at the reported coordinates.
It has previously bombed locations in the vicinity of the “humanitarian zone” in Muwasi.
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The attack comes less than a month after an Israeli bombing caused a deadly fire that tore through a refugee camp in southern Gaza – drawing widespread international outrage.
Israel continues to push ahead with its military operation into Rafah where over a million Palestinians initially sought refuge from fighting elsewhere in Gaza.
However, most have now fled after Israel attacked the city in an effort, they said, to drive out Hamas.
Residents have said that Israel appears to be trying to complete its capture of the city and tanks have been forcing their way into western and northern parts.
Eastern, southern and central areas of Rafah have already been captured.
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‘Exodus’ from Gaza as Israeli assault continues
The United Nations has said no place in Gaza is safe and humanitarian conditions are dire as huge numbers of families shelter in tents and cramped apartments without adequate food, water or medical supplies.
Israeli ground offensives and bombardments have killed more than 37,400 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry.
Israel launched the war after Hamas’s October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into southern Israel, killed some 1,200 people and abducted about 250.
Helicopters, rescue dogs and drones have continued to scour the holiday island of Tenerife for a missing British teenager as concerned family and friends endure a “living nightmare”.
The hunt for 19-year-old Jay Slater from Oswaldtwistle, near Blackburn in Lancashire, is now in its fifth day.
Lancashire Constabulary said that while the case “falls outside the jurisdiction of UK policing”, it has offered to support Spanish police “if they need any additional resources”.
The force added: “They have confirmed that at this time they are satisfied that they have the resources they need, but that offer remains open and they will contact us should that position change.”
Jay Slater. Pic: Lucy Law
The apprentice bricklayer was holidaying with friends on Tenerife before he disappeared on Monday.
He was last heard from when he called a friend to say he was setting off on an 11-hour walk to get home, after he missed his bus.
Pic: PA
Ofelia Medina Hernandez, who was the last person to see Mr Slater, told Sky News: “I saw the boy in the morning, at around 8am.
“He asked twice what time the bus came.
“I told him ‘at 10 o’clock’.
“He came back and asked me again, and I told him again – at 10 o’clock.
“After that, he walked off and I didn’t see him anymore.
“Later, I went in my car, and I saw him – he was walking fast.
“But I didn’t see him again after that.”
Her account came as new photographs showed the property where he was last seen in the northwestern mountain village of Masca after attending the NRG music festival.
Pic: PA
Pic: PA
‘We are drained beyond words’
In a post on the Facebook page Jay Slater Missing, the administrator of the group Rachel Louise Harg said family and friends were “drained beyond words”.
She said: “There isn’t an update for anyone unfortunately.
“Struggling to find words at this time but all I can say is we are looking still and everyone is doing all they can.
“We are drained beyond words – I just can’t say no more, I wish I could.
“I wish this would end now, this living nightmare.
“Searches are ongoing and we remain positive.
“Thanks to you all supporting and helping we can’t thank you any more, much love.”
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Focus on unusual details will only grow
In the mountains on the outskirts of northern Tenerife, a narrow road winds upwards, with a dramatic view of the sea below.
Beneath the beauty of the scenery, parts of the area where British teenager Jay Slater was last located are barren and remote.
One of the properties on the route through the national park is Casa Abuela Tina, the villa Jay travelled to with two men in the early hours of Monday, before he disappeared.
Just yards away from the villa’s front door you can see the bus stop that would have taken Jay back to Los Cristianos – the part of the island he was staying in near a bustling strip full of British tourists.
The teenager was agonisingly close to being able to make his way home – and as search teams comb the mountains, that fact will surely be on their minds.
Why did Jay decide to try the 11-hour walk, and why did he go to the villa with two strangers in the first place?
As the search continues, a focus on highly unusual details of this story will only grow.
Searchers check river at bottom of ravine
On Friday, search and rescue personnel joined officers from the island’s Guardia Civil near Masca to comb an area of overgrown terrain.
Teams also paid close attention to a river called Barranco Madre del Agua at the bottom of a ravine, where emergency workers carefully picked their way through fallen dead palm trees.
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Mr Slater’s friend Lucy Law, who attended the music festival with him, said he called her at about 8.30am on Monday and told her he was “lost in the mountains, he wasn’t aware of his surroundings, he desperately needed a drink and his phone was on 1%”.
Meanwhile, members of the local community rallied together at a church service in his home town to express their hope of his safe return.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesman said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has been reported missing in Spain and are in contact with the local authorities.”
A British tourist has been stabbed to death outside a nightclub near Barcelona.
The incident happened at about 4am this morning in Calella, about 30 miles away from the city.
Police have confirmed that there was a fatality, and another person was injured and taken to hospital.
According to El Caso, there was a fight outside the Oxygen nightclub and the tourist died at the scene.
In a statement, Catalan police said it is “investigating the violent death of a 31-year-old man”.
Another man has been arrested in connection with the incident, and footage from security cameras in the area is being checked.
Sky News has contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office for comment.
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