Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took aim at a violent extremist who stabbed and wounded six people with a knife in a New Zealand supermarket on Friday, the countrys second attack in two-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n
The New Zealand prime minister described the incident as a terrorist attack after a Sri Lankan national wounded civilians in Auckland.<\/p>\n
She added that she had been absolutely gutted to hear about the incident.<\/p>\n
Ardern continued: What happened today was despicable.<\/p>\n
She was also keen to keep blame solely on the individual responsible, saying: 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.<\/p>\n
Ardern said the attacker, who was not identified, was obviously a supporter of ISIS ideology, in reference to the Islamic State terror group.<\/p>\n
Fridays attacker had been in New Zealand for a decade. He had been under constant surveillance for the last five years due to concerns about his ideology, according to the prime minister.<\/p>\n
He was on a terror watchlist and was known to multiple agencies.<\/p>\n
Police were following the man and initially thought he was going into the supermarket to do some shopping.The individual allegedly picked up a knife from a supermarket display before running around like a lunatic, shopper Michelle Miller told the Stuff news outlet.<\/p>\n
Police managed to shoot and kill the man 60 seconds once he initiated the attack.<\/p>\n
Three out of the six people he wounded were in critical condition. One was in a serious condition while the remaining two were in moderate condition.<\/p>\n
Pool via Getty ImagesJacinda Ardern speaks to the media at a press conference with the details of the Auckland supermarket terror attack.<\/p>\n
New Zealand last experienced a terror attack in March 2019, when a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two Christchurch mosques.<\/p>\n
Ardern gained worldwide respect when she showed great compassion for the victims and their families.<\/p>\n
At the time, The Washington Posts Ishaan Tharoor claimed that Ardern has become the face of her nations sorrow and grief and its resolve.<\/p>\n
The prime minister has said it was not clear if the recent attack was an act of revenge for the mosque shootings.<\/p>\n
Even so, the stabbings have now prompted widespread questions as to why the individual was able to roam around New Zealand freely if he was under surveillance.<\/p>\n
Ardern said: If he had committed a criminal act that would have allowed him to be in prison, thats where he would have been.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately he didnt ... instead he was being monitored constantly, constantly, and followed.<\/p>\n
Gamal Fouda, imam of the Al Noor mosque and main target of the 2019 attacks, told Reuters: We are broken-hearted but we are not broken again ... we stand with the victims of the horrible incident.<\/p>\n
Phil Walter via Getty ImagesJacinda Ardern consoling a grieving woman after the 2019 attacks.<\/p>\n
Hitting back at criticism over the police response, Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said officers had not been able to act more quickly because they needed to maintain a distance in order to be effective.<\/p>\n
He said: The reality is, that when you are surveilling someone on a 24\/7 basis, it is not possible to be immediately next to them at all times.<\/p>\n
The staff intervened as quickly as they could and they prevented further injury in what was a terrifying situation.<\/p>\n
Fiona Goodall via Getty ImagesPolice standing outside the supermarket where the stabbings occurred on Friday.<\/p>\n
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'Not A Faith': Jacinda Ardern Blames 'Individual' For New ...<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern took aim at a violent extremist who stabbed and wounded six people with a knife in a New Zealand supermarket on Friday, the countrys second attack in two-and-a-half years. Continue reading