A knife-wielding man who kill@d six people in a Sydney shopping centre before being shot dead has been identified by Australian police.
Joel Cauchi, 40, sent the crowded Westfield Bondi Junction complex into panic on Saturday when he began stabbing people with a long blade.
Five women and a man died. Several others, including a baby, were injured.Authorities said the attack was most likely “related to the mental health” of Mr Cauchi.
Asked whether she believes he was targeting women, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters on Sunday it would be “an obvious line of inquiry”.
But she added she would not describe the stabbings as an “act of terror”, reiterating that police believed there was “no ideological motivation”.Mr Cauchi, from neighbouring state Queensland, was previously known to police.
Initial searches of a small storage unit he owned in Sydney had not shed light on a possible motive, the commissioner said.