The man who fatally stabbed six people in Sydney had mental health issues in the past and there was no indication ideology was a motive in the attack in one of the city’s busiest shopping centres, police said on Sunday.
The attacker, identified by police as Joel Cauchi, was known to police in the neighbouring state of Queensland, and police have spoken to his family after Saturday’s attack, New South Wales Police Assistant Commissioner Anthony Cooke told a press conference.
Witnesses described how Cauchi, wearing shorts and an Australian national rugby league jersey, ran through the Westfield Bondi Junction mall with a knife, randomly attacking people.
Some shoppers and staff at the mall in Sydney’s east tried to stop him and crowds sheltered in shuttered shops.
“We have seen the footage of ordinary Australians putting themselves in harm’s way in order to help their fellow citizens. That bravery was quite extraordinary,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Sunday. “It’s the best of Australians amidst this tragedy.”
The 40-year-old assailant fatally knifed six people and injured at least 12 before he was shot dead by Inspector Amy Scott, who confronted him solo while he was on the rampage.
“This was a terrible scene,” Cooke said.
“There is still to this point, nothing that we have, no information we received, no evidence we have recovered or intelligence that we have gathered that would suggest that this was driven by any particular motivation, ideology or otherwise.”
Attacks such as the one on Saturday are rare in Australia, a country of about 26 million people with some of the world’s toughest gun and knife laws.
