New Zealand police on Friday shot dead an ISIS terrorist after he injured six people in a supermarket knife rampage, despite round-the-clock surveillance by undercover officers. According to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, the man known to the government’s “multiple agencies”, was killed within 60 seconds after beginning the attack. “It was hateful, it was wrong. It was carried out by an individual, not a faith,” Ardern said, describing the attacker as a Sri Lankan national who arrived in New Zealand in 2011. “He alone carries the responsibility for these acts.”
Ardern said she was limited in what she could say publicly about the man, who had been under surveillance since 2016 because he was the subject of court suppression orders. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster said authorities were confident the man was acting alone and there was no further danger to the community. Of the wounded people, three were in critical condition, one in serious condition and another in moderate condition, the St John Ambulance service said in a statement to the Reuters news agency. Witnesses told reporters outside the mall that they had seen several people lying on the floor with stab wounds. Others said they heard gunshots as they ran out of the supermarket. New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15, 2019.