An ISIS-Inspired ‘Extremist’ Just Went on a Stabbing Rampage in New Zealand

New Zealand police shot and killed a “violent extremist” after he went on a stabbing rampage in an Auckland supermarket on Friday afternoon. 

The man, who had been a “person of national security interest” for about

five years, was killed within 60 seconds of beginning the attack, by which time he had injured at least six people. Three are in critical condition, one is in serious condition and another is in moderate condition, the St John Ambulance Service said in a statement to Reuters.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described the attacker as a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011, and said he had been inspired by ISIS.

“What happened today was despicable, it was hateful, it was wrong,” Ardern told a briefing. “A violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack on innocent New Zealanders ... It was carried out by an individual, not a faith. He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”

The police surveillance team and special tactics group that shot him dead had been monitoring the man for 24 hours a day because of his extremist beliefs. As he approached the supermarket authorities assumed he was undertaking a normal shopping expedition. He obtained the knife from within the store.

Ardern said she was “absolutely gutted” by the attack and “so sorry that it happened.” She added that while the man was a known threat and was under constant monitoring and surveillance, there was nothing to indicate that he was going to carry out the attack on Friday.

“I can tell you the agencies were using every single possible means available to them to protect the New Zealand public from this individual,” she said, explaining that he “was in the community because of our inability through the law to have him anywhere else. If there was a criminal act that would have allowed him to be in prison, that's where he would have been.”

“We had not succeeded in using the law to the extent we would have liked,” she added.

Ardern said the authorities were not looking for anyone else in relation to the stabbing.

The attack follows a similar incident that took place at a supermarket in the New Zealand city of Dunedin in May. Four people were injured, three critically, after a man stabbed multiple staff and shoppers in the store before being apprehended by bystanders and police. In that case, authorities said the incident was a “random attack.”

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