Australian Police Fatally Shoot Man Who Stabbed 7 at Shopping Mall

Australian Police Fatally Shoot Man Who Stabbed 7 at Shopping Mall
Police tape is seen outside 118 Clarence St on Aug. 13, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

PERTH—Australian police fatally shot a man who stabbed and slashed seven people at and near a shopping mall on Friday, officials said.

None of the victims of the rampage in the northwest coastal town of South Hedland suffered life-threatening injuries.

Five people were hospitalized with stab wounds, including two who remain in serious but stable condition, officials said.

Police have not revealed a motive, Western Australia state Police Commissioner Chris Dawson said.

There was no indication the assailant, aged in his 30s, was politically or ideologically motivated.

The assailant first stabbed a man at a motel near the mall and then another man who was sitting in a car at a nearby fast-food restaurant, police said.

He then knifed two men and three women at the mall, including a woman pushing a baby carriage. The child was not injured.

Two police officers Tasered the man but he still lunged at them with the knife, Dawson said. A policeman fired several shots and killed him, he said.

Nearby Port Hedland exports iron ore, and the suspect was a member of the mining work force who commute by plane 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) from the state capital, Perth.

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