"It was hateful, it was wrong, it was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity."
A stabbing rampage by a man in an Auckland supermarket has been described as a terrorist attack by New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
The man was shot dead on Friday afternoon by police after entering the supermarket and stabbing at least six people, injuring three of them critically.
"This afternoon at approximately 2.40pm, a violent extremist undertook a terrorist attack," Ardern said on
Friday afternoon.
"This was a violent attack, it was senseless, and I am so sorry it happened."
The man who is alleged to have carried out the attack was a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011 and became a person of national security interest from 2016.
The Prime Minister confirmed he was under surveillance by authorities and was shot within a minute of the attack by the police surveillance team and special tactics group that had been monitoring him 24 hours a day.
“What happened today was despicable," Ardern said.
"It was hateful, it was wrong, it was carried out by an individual, not a faith, not a culture, not an ethnicity, but an individual person who was gripped by ideology that is not supported here by anyone or any community."
Friday's incident is only the second terror attack in recent New Zealand history after a white supremacist terrorist shot 51 people at a mosque in Christchurch in 2019.
