"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.
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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."
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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.
